Chapter X - THE SLAVE LABOR PROGRAM, THE ILLEGAL USE OF PRISONERS OF WAR, AND THE SPECIAL RESPONSIBILITY OF SAUCKEL AND SPEER THEREFOR

I

In general terms, the basic elements of the Nazi foreign labor policy consisted of mass deportation and mass enslavement. It was a policy of underfeeding and overworking foreign laborers, of subjecting them to every form of degradation and brutality. It was a policy which compelled foreign workers and prisoners of war to manufacture armaments and to engage in other operations of war directed against their own countries. It was, in short, a policy which constituted a flagrant violation of the laws of war and the laws of humanity.

Fritz Sauckel and Albert Speer are principally responsible for the formulation of this policy and for its execution. Sauckel, the Nazi's Plenipotentiary General for Manpower, directed the recruitment, deportation, and allocation of foreign civilian labor. Sanctioning and directing the use of force as a means of recruitment, he was responsible for the mistreatment of the enslaved millions. Speer-as Reichsminister for Armaments and Munitions, Director of the Organization Todt, and member of the Central Planning Board-bears responsibility for the determination of the numbers of foreign slaves required by the German war machine, for the decision to recruit by force, and for the use and brutal treatment of foreign civilians and prisoners of war in the manufacture of armaments and munitions, in the construction of fortifications, and in active military operations.

Hermann Goering, as Plenipotentiary General for the Four Year Plan, is also responsible for all the crimes involved in the Nazi slave labor program. In addition, Alfred Rosenberg as Reichsminister for the Occupied Eastern Territories, Hans Frank as Governor General of the Government-General of Poland, Artur Seyss-Inquart as Reichskommissar for the Occupied Netherlands, and Wilhelm Keitel as chief of the OKW share responsibility for the recruitment by force and terror and for the deportation to Germany of the citizens of the areas overrun or subjugated by the Wehrmacht.

1. PLANNING FOR THE USE OF SLAVE LABOR

The use of vast numbers of foreign workers was planned before Germany went to war and was an integral part of the conspiracy for waging aggressive war. On 23 May 1939 a meeting was held in Hitler's study at the Reichs Chancellery. Goering, Raeder, and Keitel were present. According to the minutes of this meeting, (L-79) Hitler stated that he intended to attack Poland at the first suitable opportunity. He further stated:

"* * * If fate brings us into contact with the West, the possession of extensive areas in the East will be advantageous. We shall be able to rely upon record harvests, even less in time of war than in peace.

"The population of non-German areas will perform no military service, and will be available as a source of labor". (L-79)

The slave labor program was designed to achieve two purposes. The primary purpose was to satisfy the labor requirements of the Nazi war machine by compelling foreign workers, in effect, to make war against their own countries and its allies. The secondary purpose was to destroy or weaken peoples deemed inferior by the Nazi racialists, or deemed potentially hostile by the Nazi planners of world supremacy. These purposes were expressed by the conspirators themselves. In Sauckel's Labor Mobilization Program (016-PS) which he sent to Rosenberg on 20 April 1942, Sauckel declared:

"* * * The aim of this new, gigantic labor mobilization is to use all the rich and tremendous sources, conquered and secured for us by our fighting Armed Forces under the leadership of Adolf Hitler, for the armament of the Armed Forces and also for the nutrition of the Homeland. The raw materials as well as the fertility of the conquered territories and their human labor power are to be used completely and conscientiously to the profit of Germany and their allies." (016-PS)

The theory of the "master race," which underlay the conspirators' labor policy in the East, was expressed in the following words by Erich Koch, Reichskommissar for the Ukraine, at a meeting of the National Socialist Party on 5 March 1943 in Kiev:

"1. We are the master race and must govern hard but just * * *.

"2. I will draw the very last out of this country. I did not come to spread bliss. I have come to help the Fuehrer. The population must work, work, and work again * * * for some people are getting excited, that the population may not get enough to eat. The population cannot demand that, on has only to remember what our heroes were deprived of in Stalingrad * * * We definitely did not come here to give out manna. We have come here to create the basis for victory.

"3. We are a master race, which must remember that the lowliest German worker is racially and biologically a thousand times more valuable than the population here". (1130-PS)

And in a speech delivered to a group of SS Generals on 4 October 1943 at Posen, Himmler stated:

"* * * What happens to a Russian, to a Czech, does not interest me in the slightest. What the nations can offer in the way of good blood of our type, we will take, if necessary by kidnapping their children and raising them here with us. Whether nations live in prosperity or starve to death interests me only in so far as we need them as slaves for our Kultur: otherwise, it is of no interest to me. Whether 10,000 Russian females fall down from exhaustion while digging an anti-tank ditch interests me only in so far as the anti-tank ditch for Germany is finished * * *." (1919-PS)

A Top Secret memorandum prepared for the Ministry of the Occupied Eastern Territories on 12 June 1944, and approved by Rosenberg, contains the following plans:

"The Army Group 'Center' has the intention to apprehend 40-50,000 youths at the ages of 10 to 14 who are in the Army territory and to transport them to the Reich * * *."

"It is intended to allot these juveniles primarily to the German trades as apprentices to be used as skilled workers after 2 years' training. This is to be arranged through the Organization Todt which is especially equipped for such a task through its technical and other set-ups. This action is being greatly welcomed by the German trade since it represents a decisive measure for the alleviation of the shortage of apprentices."

"1. This action is not only aimed at preventing a direct reinforcement of the enemy's military strength, but also at a reduction of his biological potentialities as viewed from the perspective of the future. These ideas have been voiced not only by the Reichsfuehrer of the SS but also by the Fuehrer. Corresponding orders were given during last year's withdrawals in the southern sector * * *." (031-PS)

Rosenberg's approval is at the end of the document:

"regarding the above-Obergruppenfuehrer Berger received the memorandum on June 14. Consequently the Reichsminister has approved the Action." (031-PS)

2. EXECUTION OF THE SLAVE LABOR PROGRAM

The purposes of the slave labor program, namely, the strengthening of the Nazi war machine and the destruction or weakening of peoples deemed inferior, were achieved by the impressment and deportation of millions of persons into Germany for forced labor, by the separation of husbands from their wives and children from their parents, and by the imposition of conditions so inhuman that countless numbers perished.

A. Poland.

Poland was the first victim. Frank, as Governor of the Government-General of Poland, announced that under his program 1,000,000 workers were to be sent to Germany, and recommended that police surround Polish villages and seize the inhabitants for deportation. These intentions appear in the following letter from Frank to Goering, dated 25 January 1940 (1375-PS):

"1. In view of the present requirements of the Reich for the defense industry, it is at present fundamentally impossible to carry on a long term economic policy in the General-Government. Rather, it is necessary so to steer the economy of the General Government that it will, in the shortest possible time, accomplish results representing the maximum that can be gotten out of the economic strength of the General-Government for the immediate strengthening of our capacity for defense.

"2. In particular the following performances are expected to the total economy of the General-Government * * *" "(g) Supply and transportation of at least 1 million male and female agricultural and industrial workers to the Reich -among them at least 7,500,000 [sic] agricultural workers of which at least 50% must be women-in order to guarantee agricultural production in the Reich and as a replacement for industrial workers lacking in the Reich.' (1375-PS)

The methods by which these workers were to be supplied were outlined by Frank in his diary entry for Friday, 10 May 1940 (2233-A-PS):

"* * * Then the Governor General deals with the problem of the Compulsory Labor Service of the Poles. Upon the demands from the Reich it has now been decreed that compulsion may be exercised in view of the fact that sufficient manpower was not voluntarily available for service inside the German Reich. This compulsion means the possibility of arrest of male and female Poles. Because of these measures a certain disquietude had developed which, according to individual reports, was spreading very much, and which might produce difficulties everywhere. General Fieldmarshal Goering some time ago pointed out in his long speech the necessity to deport into the Reich a million workers. The supply so far was 160,000. however, great difficulties had to be overcome. Therefore it would be advisable to consult the district and town chiefs in the execution of the compulsion, so that one could be sure from the start that this action would be reasonably successful. The arrest of young Poles when leaving church service or the cinema would bring about an increasing nervousness of the Poles. Generally speaking, he had no objections at all if the rubbish, capable of work yet often loitering about, would be snatched from the streets. The best method for this, however, would be the organization of a raid, and it would be absolutely justifiable to stop a Pole in the street and to question him what he was doing, where he was working etc." (2233-A-PS)

Another entry in the diary of Frank, for 16 March 1940, contains the following discourse on methods:

"* * * The Governor General remarks that he had long negotiations in Berlin with representatives of the Reich Ministry for Finance and the Reich Ministry for Food. One has made the urgent demand there that Polish farm workers should be sent to the Reich in greater numbers. He has made the statement in Berlin that he, if it is demanded from him, can naturally exercise force in such a manner that he has the police surround a village and get the men and women, in question, out by force, and then send them to Germany. But one can also work differently, besides these police measures, by retaining the unemployment compensation of those workers in question." (2233-B-PS)

The instruments of force and terror used to carry out this program reached into many phases of Polish life. German labor authorities raided churches and theatres, seized those present, and shipped them to Germany. These facts appear in a memorandum to Himmler dated 17 April 1943, written by Dr. Lammers, chief of the Reichs Chancellery, with regard to the situation in the Government General of Poland:

"* * * As things were, the utilization of manpower had to be enforced by means of more or less forceful methods, such as the instances when certain groups appointed by the Labor Offices, caught Church and Move-goers here and there and transported them into the Reich. That such methods not only undermine the people's willingness to work and the people's confidence to such a degree that it cannot be checked even with terror, is just as clear as the consequences brought about by a strengthening of the political resistance movement." (2220-PS)

Polish farm land was confiscated with the aid of the SS, distributed to German inhabitants, or held in trust for the German community. The farm owners were thereupon employed as laborers or transported to Germany against their will. A report of the SS entitled "Achievement of Confiscations of Polish Agricultural Enterprises with the Purpose to Transfer the Poles to the old Reich and to Employ Them as Agricultural Workers," contains these disclosures:

"* * * It is possible without difficulty to accomplish the confiscation of small agricultural enterprises in the villages in which larger agricultural enterprises have been already confiscated and are under the management of the East German Corporation for agricultural development. * * *.

The former owners of Polish farms, together with their families will be transferred to the old Reich by the employment agencies for employment as farm workers. In this way many hundreds of Polish agricultural workers can be placed at the disposal of agriculture in the old Reich in the shortest and simplest manner. This way the most pressing shortage is removed that is now in a very disagreeable manner felt especially in the root-crop districts." (1352-PS)

Pursuant to the directions of Sauckel, his agents and the SS deported Polish men to Germany without their families, thereby accomplishing the basic purposes of the program: supplying labor for the German war effort and weakening the reproductive potential of the Polish people. Thus, in a letter from Sauckel to the Presidents of the "Landes" employment Offices, dated 25 November 1942, it is stated that:

"In agreement with the Chief of the Security Police and the SD, Jews who are still in employment are, from now on, to be evacuated from the territory of the Reich and are to be replaced by Poles, who are being deported from the General-Government."

"The Poles who are to be evacuated as a result of this measure will be put into concentration camps and put to work where they are criminal or asocial elements. The remaining Poles where they are suitable for labor, will be transported-without family-into the Reich, particularly to Berlin; there they will be put at the disposal of the labor allocation offices to work in armament factories instead of the Jews who are to be replaced." (L-61)

The Nazi campaign of force, terror, and abduction was described in a letter to Frank written by the Chairman of the Ukrainian Main Committee, at Cracow, in February 1943. The letter states:

"The general nervousness is still more enhanced by the wrong methods of finding labor which have been used more and more frequently in recent months.

"The wild and ruthless man-hunt as exercised everywhere in towns and country, in streets, squares, stations, even in churches, at night in houses, has badly shaken the feeling of security of the inhabitants. Everybody is exposed to the danger, to be seized anywhere and at any time by members of the police, suddenly and unexpectedly and to be brought into an assembly camp. None of his relatives knows what has happened to him, only months later one or the other gives news of his fate by a postcard." (1626-PS)

And in enclosure 5 of the letter it is related that:

"In November of last year an inspection of all males of the age groups 1910 to 1920 was ordered in the area of Zaleschozyki (district of Czortkow). After the men had appeared for inspection, all those who were chosen were arrested at once, loaded into trains and sent to the Reich. Such recruiting of laborers for the Reich also took place in other areas of this district. Following some interventions the action was then stopped" (1526-PS)

The resistance of the Polish people to this Nazi enslavement program and the necessity for increased force were described by Sauckel's deputy Timm at a meeting of the Central Planning Board, Hitler's war-time planning agency, which was composed of Speer, Field Marshal Milch, and State Secretary Koerner. The Central Planning Board was the highest level economic planning agency, and exercised production controls by allocating raw materials and labor to industrial users. Timm's statement, which was made at the 36th conference of the Board, is as follows:

"* * * Especially in Poland the situation at the moment is extraordinarily serious. It is well known that vehement battle occurred just because of these actions. The resistance against the administration established by us, is very strong. Quite a number of our men have been exposed to increased dangers, and it was just in the last two or three weeks that some of them were shot dead, e.g. the Head of the Labor Office of Warsaw who was shot in his office, and yesterday another man again. This is how matters stand presently, and the recruiting itself even if done with the best will remains extremely difficult unless police reinforcements are at hand." (R-124)

B. The Occupied Eastern Territories.

Deportation and enslavement of civilians reached unprecedented levels in the Occupied Eastern Territories as a direct result of labor demands made by Sauckel on Rosenberg, Reichsminister for the Occupied Eastern Territories, on Rosenberg's subordinates, and on the Armed Forces. On 5 October 1942, for example, Sauckel wrote to Rosenberg stating that 2,000,000 more foreign laborers were required, and that the majority of these would have to be drafted from the recently occupied Eastern Territories and especially from the Ukraine. The letter, (017-PS) reads as follows:

"The Fuehrer has worked out new and most urgent plans for the armament which require the quick mobilization of two more million foreign labor forces. The Fuehrer therefore has granted me, for the execution of my decree of 21 March 1942, new powers for my new duties, and has especially authorized me to take whatever measures I think are necessary in the Reich, the Protectorate, the General-Government, as well as in the occupied territories, in order to assure at all costs an orderly mobilization of labor for the German armament industry. The additional required labor forces will have to be drafted for the majority from the recently occupied Eastern Territories, especially from the Reichskommissariat Ukraine. Therefore, the Reichskommissariat. Ukraine must furnish:

"225,000 labor forces by 31 December 1942 and 225,000 more by 1 May 1943.

"I ask you to inform Reichskommissar Gauleiter party fellow member Koch about the new situation and requirements and especially to see to it that he will support personally in any possible way the execution of this new requirement.

"I have the intention to visit Party member Koch shortly and I would be grateful to you if you could inform me as to where and when I could meet him for a personal discussion. "Right now though, I ask that the procurement be taken up at once with every possible pressure and the commitment of all powers especially also of the experts of the labor offices. All the directives which had limited temporarily the procurement of Eastern laborers are annulled. The Reichs procurement for the next months must be given priority over all other measures.

"I do not ignore the difficulties which exist for the execution of this new requirement, but I am convinced that with the ruthless commitment of all resources, and with the full co-operation of all those interested, the execution of the new demands can be accomplished for the fixed date. I have already communicated the new demands to the Reichskommissar Ukraine via mail. In reference to our long distance phone call of to-day I will send you the text of the Fuehrer's decree at the beginning of next week." (017-PS)

Again on 17 March 1943 Sauckel wrote Rosenberg, demanding the importation of another 1,000,000 men and women from the Eastern territories within the following four months (019-PS). Sauckel said:

"After a protracted illness my Deputy for Labor Supply in the occupied Eastern Territories, State Councillor Peukert, is going there to regulate the labor supply both for Germany and the territories themselves.

"I ask you sincerely, dear party member Rosenberg, to assist him to your utmost on account of the pressing urgency of Peukert's mission. Already now I may thank you for the hitherto good reception accorded to Peukert. He himself has been charged by me with the absolute and completely unreserved cooperation with all bureaus of the Eastern Territories.

"Especially the labor supply for the German agriculture, and likewise for the most urgent armament production programs ordered by the Fuehrer make the fastest importation of approximately 1 million women and men from the Eastern Territories within the next four months a must. Starting 15 March the daily shipment must have reached 5,000 female and male workers respectively, while beginning of April this number has to be stepped up to 10,000. This is a requisite of the most urgent programs, and the spring tillage, and other agricultural tasks are not ot suffer for the detriment of the nutrition and of the armed forces.

"I have foreseen the allotment of the draft quotas for the individual territories in agreement with your experts for the labor supply as follows:-

"Daily quota starting 15 March 1943:

People

"From General commissariat White Ruthenia....500

"Economic Inspection Center..........500

"Reichs Commissariat Ukraine..........3,000

"Economic Inspection South...........1,000

Total..............................5,000

"Starting 1 April 1943 the daily quota is to be doubled corresponding to the doubling of the entire quota.

"I hope to visit personally the Eastern Territories towards the end of the months, and ask you once more for your kind support." (019-PS)

Sauckel travelled to Kauen in Lithuania to press his demands. A synopsis of a report of the City Commissioner of Kauen and minutes of a meeting in which Sauckel participated, reveal that:

"In a lecture which the Plenipotentiary for the Arbeitseinsatz, Gauleiter Sauckel made on 18 July 1943 in Kauen and in an official conference following it, between Gauleiter Sauckel and the General Commissar, the pool of labor in the Reich was again brought up urgently: Gauleiter Sauckel again demanded that Lithuanian labor be furnished in greater volume for the purposes of the Reich." (204-PS)

Sauckel also visited Riga, Latvia, to assert his demands. The purpose of this visit is described in a letter from the Reich Commissar for the Ostland to the Commissioner General in Riga, dated 3 May 1943. The letter states, in part:

"In reference to the basic statements of the Plenipotentiary General for manpower, Gauleiter Sauckel on the occasion of his visit to Riga on 21 April 1943, and in view of the critical situation and in disregard of all contrary considerations, it was decided that a total of 183,000 workers have to be supplied from the Ostland for the Reich territory. This task must absolutely be accomplished within the next four months and at the latest must be completed by the end of August." (2280-PS)

Sauckel asked the German Army for assistance in the recruitment and deportation of civilian labor from the Eastern Territories. A secret organization order of the Army Group South, dated 17 August 1943, is to the following effect:

"The Plenipotentiary General for Labor Employment ordered the recruitment and employment of all born during two years for the whole, newly occupied Eastern territory in Decree Az. VI A 5780.28 (Inclosure 1), copy of which is inclosed. The Reich Minister for Armament and Munition approved this order.

"According to this order by the Plenipotentiary General for Labor Employment (GBA) you have to recruit and to transport to the Reich immediately all labor forces in your territory born during 1926 and 1927. The decree relative labor duty and labor employment in the theater of operations of the newly occupied Eastern territory of the 6 February 1943 and the executive orders therefore are the authority for the execution of this measure. Enlistment must be completed by 30 Sept. 43 at the latest." (3010-PS)

Clearly, the demands made by Sauckel did result in the deportation of civilians from the occupied Eastern territories. Speer has stated in a record of conferences with Hitler on 10, 11, and 12 August 1942 that:

"Gauleiter Sauckel promises to make Russian labor available for the fulfillment of the iron and coal program and reports that-it required-he can supply a further million Russian laborers for the German armament industry up to and including October 1942. So far, he has already supplied 1 million for industry and 700,000 for agriculture. In this connection the Fuehrer states that the problem of providing labor can be solved in all cases and to any extent; he authorizes Gauleiter Sauckel to take all measures required.

"He would agree to any necessary compulsion (zwangsmassnahmen) in the East as well as in the West if this question could not be solved on a voluntary basis." (R-124)

3. VIOLENT METHODS OF DEPORTATION FOR SLAVE LABOR

In order to meet these demands, the Nazi conspirators made terror, violence, and arson the staple instruments of their policy of enslavement. Twenty days after Sauckel's demands of 5 October 1942, a high official in Rosenberg's Ministry by the name of Braeutigam, in a Top Secret memorandum dated 25 October 1942 described measures taken to meet these demands:

"* * * We now experienced the grotesque picture of having to recruit millions of laborers from the Occupied Eastern Territories, after prisoners of war have died of hunger like flies, in order to fill the gaps that have formed within Germany. Now the food question no longer existed. In the prevailing limitless abuse of the Slavic humanity 'recruiting' methods were used which probably have their origin in the blackest periods of the slave trade. A regular manhunt was inaugurated. Without consideration of health or age the people were shipped to Germany where it turned out immediately that more than 100,000 had to be sent back because of serious illnesses and other incapabilities for work." (294-PS)

Rosenberg on 21 December 1942 wrote to Sauckel, the instigator of these brutalities, as follows:

"The reports I have received show, that the increase of the guerilla bands in the occupied Eastern Regions is largely due to the fact that the methods used for procuring laborers in these regions are felt to be forced measures of mass deportations, so that the endangered persons prefer to escape their fate by withdrawing into the woods or going to the guerilla bands." (018-PS)

An attachment to Rosenberg's letter, consisting of parts excerpted from letters of residents of the Occupied Eastern territories by Nazi censors, relates that:

"At our place, new things have happened. People are being taken to Germany. On Dec. 5, some people from the Kowkuski district were scheduled to go, but they didn't want to and the village was set afire. They threatened to do the same thing in Borowytschi, as not all who were scheduled to depart wanted to go. Thereupon 3 truck loads of Germans arrived and set fire to their houses. In Wrasnytschi 12 houses and in Borowytschi 3 houses were burned.

"On Oct. 1 a new conscription of labor forces took place. From what has happened, I will describe the most important to you. You can not imagine the bestiality. You probably remember what we were told about the Soviets during the rule of the Poles. At that time we did not believe it and now it seems just as incredible. The order came to supply 25 workers, but no one reported. All had fled. Then the German militia came and began to ignite the houses of those who had fled. The fire became very violent, since it had not rained for 2 months. In addition the grain stacks were in the farm yards. You can imagine what took place. The people who had hurried to the scene were forbidden to extinguish the flames, beaten and arrested, so that 7 homesteads burned down. The policemen meanwhile ignited other houses. The people fell on their knees and kiss their hands, but the policemen beat them with rubber truncheons and threaten to burn down the whole village. I don't know how this would have ended if, I Sapurkany had not intervened. He promised that there would be laborers by morning. During the fire the militia went through the adjoining villages, seized the laborers and brought them under arrest. Wherever they did not find any laborers, they detained the parents, until the children appeared. That is how they raged throughout the night in Bielosirka. The workers which had not yet appeared till then, were to be shot. All schools were closed and the married teachers were sent to work here, while the unmarried ones go to work in Germany. They are now catching humans like the dog-catchers used to catch dogs. They are already hunting for one week and have not yet enough. The imprisoned workers are locked in at the schoolhouse. They cannot even go out to perform their natural functions, but have to do it like pigs in the same room. People from many villages went on a certain day to a pilgrimage to the monastery Potschaew. They were all arrested, locked in, and will be sent to work. Among them there are lame, blind and aged people". (018-PS).

Rosenberg, nevertheless, countenanced the use of force in order to furnish slave labor to Germany and admitted his responsibility for the "unusual and hard measures" that were employed. The transcript of an interrogation of Rosenberg under oath on 6 October 1945, contains the following admissions:

"* * * Q. You recognized, did you not, that the quotas set by Sauckel could not be filled by voluntary labor, and you didn't disapprove of the impressment of forced labor; isn't that right?

"A I regretted that the demands of Sauckel were so urgent that they could not be met by a continuation of voluntary recruitment and thus I submitted to the necessity of forced impressment."

"Q. The letters that we have already seen between you and Sauckel, do not indicate, do they, any disagreement on your part with the principle of recruiting labor against their will; they indicate, as I remember, that you were opposed to the treatment that was later accorded these workers; that you did not oppose their initial impressment.

"A. That is right. In those letters I mostly discussed the possibility to finding the least harsh methods of handling the matter; whereas, in no way, I placed myself in opposition to the orders that he was carrying out for the Fuehrer." (3719-PS)

Moreover, in a letter dated 21 December 1942 Rosenberg stated:

"* * * Even if I do not close my eyes to the necessity that the numbers demanded by the Reichs Minister for weapons and ammunition as well as by the agricultural economy justify unusual and hard measures, I have to ask, due to the responsibility for the occupied Eastern Territories which lies upon me, that in the accomplishment of the ordered tasks such measures be excluded, the toleration and prosecution of which will some day be held against me, and my collaborators." (018-PS)

Arson was used as a terror device in the Ukraine to enforce conscription measures. One instance is reported in a document from an official of the Rosenberg Ministry dated 29 June 1944, enclosing a copy of a letter from Paul Raab, a district commissioner in the territory of Wassilkow, to Rosenberg. Raab's letter reads as follows:

"According to a charge by the Supreme Command of the Armed Forces I burned down a few houses in the territory of Wassilkow/Ukr. belonging to insubordinate people ordered for work-duty (Arbeitseinsatzpflichtigen). This accusation is true."

"During the year 1942, the conscription of workers was accomplished by way of propaganda. Only very rarely was force necessary. Only in August 1942, measures had to be taken against 2 families in the villages Glewenka and Salisny-Chutter, each of which were to supply one person for labor. Both were requested in June for the first time, but didn't obey although requested repeatedly. They had to be brought up by force, but succeeded twice to escape from the collecting camp, or when being on transport. Before the second arrest, the fathers of both of the men were taken into custody, to be kept as hostages and to be released only when their sons would show up. When, after the second escape, re-arrest of both the fathers and boys was ordered, the police patrols ordered to do so, found the house to be empty."

"That time I decided to take measures to show the increasingly rebellious Ukrainian youth that our orders have to be followed. I ordered the burning down of the houses of the fugitives."

"After the initial successes, a passive resistance of the population started, which finally forced me to start again on making arrests confiscations, and transfers to labor camps. After a while a transport of people, obliged to work, overran the police in the railroad station in Wassilkow and escaped. I saw again the necessity for strict measures. A few ring leaders, which of course escaped before they were found in Plissezkoje and in Mitnitza. After repeated attempts to get hold of them, their houses were burned down."

"My actions against fugitive people obliged to work (Arbeitseinsatzpflichtige), were always reported to district commissioner Doehrer, in office in Wassilkow, and to the general-commissioner (Generalkommissar) in Kiew. Both of them know the circumstances and agreed with my measures, because of their success." (254-PS)

"The village of Biloserka in the Ukraine was also the victim of arson as has already been related in the quotation from the enclosure to Rosenberg's letter of 21 December 1942 to Sauckel (018-PS). Additional proof of resort to arson in this village is furnished by other correspondence originating within the Rosenberg Ministry and dated 12 November 1943:

"But even if Mueller had been present at the burning of houses in connection with the national conscription in Biloserka, this should be no means lead to the relief of Mueller from office. It is mentioned specifically in a directive of the Commissioner General in Lusk of 21 Sept 1942, referring to the extreme urgency of the national conscription.

'Estates of those who refuse to work are to be burned, their relatives are to be arrested as hostages and to be brought to forced labor camps." (290-PS)

The SS was directed to participate in the abduction of slave laborers, and in the case of raids on villages or burning of villages, to turn the entire population over for slave labor in Germany. A secret SS order dated 19 March 1943 (3012-PS) states:

"The activity of the labor offices, resp. of recruiting commissions, is to be supported to the greatest extent possible. It will not be possible always to refrain from using force. During a conference with the Chief of the Labor Commitment Staffs, an agreement was reached stating that whatever prisoners can be released, they should be put at the disposal of the Commissioner of the Labor Office. When searching (Uberholung) villages, resp., when it has become necessary to burn down villages, the whole population will be put at the disposal of the Commissioner by force." (3012-PS)

From Shitomir, where Sauckel appealed for more workers for the Reich, the Commissioner General reported on the brutality of the conspirators' program, which he described as a program of coercion and slavery. This is revealed in a secret report of a conference between the Commissioner General of Shitomir and Rosenberg in Winniza on 17 June 1943 (265-PS). The report is dated 30 June 1943 and is signed by Leyser. It reads as follows:

"The symptoms created by the recruiting of workers, are no doubt, well known to the Reichs Minister through reports and his own observations. Therefore, I shall not report them. It is certain that a recruitment of labor, in this sense of the word, can hardly be spoken of. In most cases, it is nowadays a matter of actual conscription by force."

"But as the Chief Plenipotentiary for the mobilization of labor explained to us the gravity of the situation, we had no other device. I consequently have authorized the commissioners of the areas to apply the severest measures in order to achieve the imposed quota. The deterioration of morale in conjunction with this does not necessitate any further proof. It is nevertheless essential to win the war on this front too. The problem of labor mobilization cannot be handled with gloves." (265-PS)

These recruitment measures enslaved so many citizens of occupied countries that entire areas were depopulated. Thus, a report from the Chief of Main Office III with the High Command in Minsk, dated 28 June 1943, to Ministerialdirektor Riecke, a top official in the Rosenberg Ministry states:

"The recruitment of labor for the Reich, however necessary, had disastrous effects. The recruitment measures in the last months and weeks were absolute manhunts, which have an irreparable political and economic effect. From White Ruthenia, approx. 50,000 people have been obtained for the Reich so far. Another 130,000 are to be obtained. Considering the 2.4 million total population these figures are impossible. * * *

"Due to the sweepting drives (Grossaktionen) of the SS and police in November 1942, about 115,000 hectar farmland is not used, as the population is not there and the villages have been razed. * * *" (3000-PS)

The conspirators' policy, of permanently weakening the enemy through the enslavement of labor and breaking up of families, was applied in the Occupied Eastern Territories after Rosenberg's approval of a plan for the apprehension and deportation of 40,000 to 50,000 youths of the ages from 10 to 14. The stated purpose of this plan, approved by Rosenberg, was to prevent a reinforcement of the enemy's military strength and to reduce the enemy's biological potentialities. (031-PS)

Further evidence of the Nazi conspirators' plan to weaken their enemies in utter disregard of the rules of International Law is contained in a secret order issued by a rear-area Military Commandant to the District Commissar at Kasatin on 25 December 1943. The order provided in part that:

"1. The able-bodied make population between 15 and 65 years of age and the cattle are to be shipped back from the district East of the line Belilowka-Berditschen-Shitomir (places excluded). (1702-PS)

The program of enslavement and its accompanying measures of brutality were not limited to Poland and the Eastern Occupied Territories, but extended to Western Europe as well. Frenchmen, Dutchmen, Belgians, and Italians all came to know the Nazi slavemasters. In France these slavemasters intensified their program in the early part of 1943 pursuant to instructions which Speer telephoned to Sauckel from Hitler's headquarters at eight in the evening of 4 January 1943. These instructions are found in a note for the files signed by Sauckel, dated 5 January 1943, which states:

"1. On 4 January 1943 at 8 p.m. Minister Speer telephones from the Fuehrers headquarters and communicates that on the basis of the Fuehrer's decision, it is no longer necessary to give special consideration to Frenchmen in the further recruiting of specialists and helpers in France. The recruiting can proceed with emphasis and sharpened measures." (556-13-PS)

To overcome the resistance to his enslavement program, Sauckel improvised new impressment measures which were applied in both France and Italy by his own agents and which he himself labelled as grotesque. At a meeting of the Central Planning Board on 1 March 1944 Sauckel stated:

"The most abominable point made by my adversaries is their claim that no executive had been provided within these areas in order to recruit in a sensible manner the Frenchmen, Belgians and Italians and to dispatch them to work. Thereupon I even proceeded to employ and train a whole batch of French male and female agents who for good pay just as was done in olden times for "shanghaiing" went hunting for men and made them drunk by using liquor as well as words, in order to dispatch them to Germany.

"Moreover, I charged some able men with founding a special labor supply executive of our own, and this they did by training and arming with the help of the Higher SS and Police Fuehrer, a number of natives, but I still have to ask the Munitions Ministry for arms for the use of these men. For during the last year alone several dozens of very able labor executive officers have been shot dead. All these means I have to apply, grotesque as it sounds, to refute the allegation there was no executive to bring labor to Germany from these countries." (R-124)

As in France, the slave hunt in Holland was accompanied by terror and abduction. The "Statement of the Netherlands Government in view of the Prosecution and Punishment of the German Major War Criminals", (1726-PS) contains the following account of the deportation of Netherlands workmen to Germany:

"Many big and reasonably large business concerns, especially in the metal industry, were visited by German commissions who appointed workmen for deportation. This combing out of the concerns was called the "Sauckel-action", so named after its leader, who was charged with the appointment of foreign workmen in Germany.

"The employers had to cancel the contracts with the appointed workmen temporarily, and the latter were forced to register at the labor offices, which then took care of the deportation under supervision of German 'Fachberater.'

"Workmen who refused (relatively few) were prosecuted by the Sicherheitsdeinst (SD). If captured by this service, they were mostly lodged for some time in one of the infamous prisoners camps in the Netherlands and eventually put to work in Germany.

"In this prosecution the Sicherheitsdienst was supported by the German Police Service, which was connected with the labour offices, and was composed of members of the N.S.B. and the like.

"At the end of April 1942 the deportation of working labourers started on a grand scale. Consequently in the months of May and June the number of deportees amounted to not less than 22,000 resp. 24,000 of which many were metal workers.

"After that the action slackened somewhat, but in October 1942 another top was reached (2,600). After the big concerns, the smaller ones had, in their turn, to give up their personnel.

"This changed in November 1944. The Germans then started a ruthless campaign for man-power, passing by the labour offices. Without warning, they lined off whole quarters of the town, seized people in the streets or in the houses and deported them.

"In Rotterdam and Schiedam where these raids (razzia's) took place on 10 and 11 November, the amount of people thus deported was estimated at 50,000 and 5,000 respectively. "In other places where the raids were held later, the numbers were much lower, because one was forewarned by the events. The exact figures are not known as they have never been published by the occupants.

"The people thus seized were put ot work partly in the Netherlands, partly in Germany * * *." (1726-PS)

A document found in the OKH files furnishes further evidence of the seizure of workers in Holland. This document contains the partial text of a lecture delivered by a Lieutenant Haupt of the German Wehrmacht concerning the situation of the war economy is the Netherlands:

"There had been some difficulties with the Arbeitseinsatz, i.e., during the man-catching action (Menchenfang Aktion) which became very noticeable because it was unorganized and unprepared. People were arrested in the streets and taken out of their homes. It has been impossible to carry out a unified release procedure in advance, because for security reasons, the time for the action had not been previously announced. Certificates of release, furthermore, were to some extent not recognized by the officials who carried out the action. Not only workers who had become available through the stoppage of industry but also those who were employed in our installations producing things for our immediate need. They were apprehended or did not dare to go into the streets. In any case it proved to be a great loss to us. * * *" (3003-PS)

4. RESULTS OF THE SLAVE LABOR PROGRAM

The hordes of displaced persons in Germany today reflect the extent to which the Nazi conspirators' labor program succeeded. The best available Allied and German data reveal that as of January 1945 approximately 4,795,000 foreign civilian workers had been put to work for the German war effort in the old Reich, among them slave laborers of more than 14 different nationalities. An affidavit executed by Edward L. Deuss, an economic analyst, contains the following statistical summation:

"APPROXIMATE NUMER OF FOREIGNERS PUT TO WORK FOR THE GERMAN WAR EFFORT IN THE OLD REICH

"Note: Of the estimated 6,691,000 approximately 2,000,000 civilian foreigners and 245,000 prisoners of war were employed directly in the manufacture of armaments and munitions (end products or components) on the 31 December 1944, according to Speer Ministry tabulations. The highest number of prisoners of war so employed was 400,000 in June 1944, the decrease to December 1944 being accounted for in party by a change in status from prisoners to civilian workers. A figure of 2,070,000 Russians uncovered in the American, British and French zones, given in 'Displaced Persons Report No. 43,' of the Combined Displaced Persons' Executive, c/o G-5 Division, USFET, 30 September 1945, was increased by 430,000 to allow for Russians estimated to have been found on German territory conquered by the Red Army."

"The designation 'Politicals' at the head of the third column in the table should be taken to mean persons who upon being uncovered in Germany by the Allied forces asserted that they were arrested in their native countries for subversive activities against the Nazis, and were transported to Germany for incarceration. The figures do not include racial or religious deportees, nor persons imprisoned for crimes allegedly committed in Germany * * *." (2520-PS)

Only a small proportion of the foreign workers brought to Germany were volunteers. At the 1 March 1944 meeting of the Central Planning Board, Sauckel made clear the vast scale of slavery. He stated:

"* * * Out of five million foreign workers who arrived in Germany, not even 200,000 came voluntarily." (R-124)

5. CONDITIONS OF DEPORTAION AND SLAVE LABOR

The Nazi conspirators were not satisfied to tear 5,000,000 persons from their families, their homes, and their country. They insisted that these 5,000,000 wretches, while being deported to Germany or after their arrival, be degraded, beaten, and permitted to die for want of food, clothing, and adequate shelter. Conditions of deportation are vividly described in a report to Rosenberg concerning treatment of Ukrainian labor (054-PS):

"The starosts esp. village elders are frequently corruptible, they continue to have the skilled workers, whom they drafted, dragged from their beds at night to be locked up in cellars until they are shipped. Since the male and female workers often are not given any time to pack their luggage, etc., many skilled workers arrive at the Collecting Center for Skilled Workers with equipment entirely insufficient (without shoes, only two dresses, no eating and drinking utensils, no blankets, etc.) In particularly extreme cases new arrivals therefore have to be sent back again immediately to get the things most necessary for them. If people do not come along at once, threatening and beating of skilled workers by the above mentioned militia is a daily occurrence and is reported from most of the communities. In some cases women were beaten until they could no longer march. One bad case in particular was reported by me to the commander of the civil police here (Colonel Samek) for severe punishment (place Sozolinkow, district Dergatschi). The encroachments of the starosts and the militia are of a particularly grave nature because they usually justify themselves by claiming that all that is done in the name of the German Armed Forces. In reality the latter have conducted themselves throughout in a highly understanding manner toward the skilled workers and the Ukrainian population. The same, however, can not be said of some of the administrative agencies. To illustrate this be it mentioned, that a woman once arrived being dressed with barely more than a shirt."

"* * * On the basis of reported incidents, attention must be called to the fact that it is irresponsible to keep workers locked in the cars for many hours so that they cannot even take care of the calls of nature. It is evident that the people of a transport must be given an opportunity from time to time in order to get drinking water, to wash, and in order to relieve themselves. Cars have been showed in which people had made holes so that they could take care of the calls of nature. When nearing bigger stations persons should, if possible, relieve themselves far from these stations."

"The following abuses were reported from the delousing stations:

"In the women's and girls' shower rooms, services were partly performed by men or men would mingle around or even helped with the scalping; and vice versa, there were female personnel in the men's shower rooms; men also for some time were taking photographs in the women's shower rooms. Since mainly Ukrainian peasants were transported in the last months, as far as the female portion of these are concerned, they were mostly of a high moral standard and used to attract decency, they must have considered such a treatment as a national degradation. The above mentioned abuses have been, according to our knowledge, settled by the intervention of the transport commanders. The reports of the photographing were made from Halle; the reports about the former were made from Kiewerce. Such incidents in complete disregard of the honor and respect of the Greater German Reich may still occur again here or there." (054-PS)

Sick and infirm citizens of the occupied countries were taken indiscriminately with the rest. Those who managed to survive the trip into Germany, but who arrived too sick to work, were returned like cattle, together with those who fell ill at work, because they were of no further use to the Germans. The return trip took place under the same conditions as the initial journey, and without any kind of medical supervision. Death came to many, and their corpses were unceremoniously dumped out of the cars with no provision for burial. Thus, the report continues:

"* * * Very depressing for the more able of the skilled workers and the population is the effect of those persons shipped back from Germany for having become disabled or not having been fit for labor commitment from the very workers on their way to Germany have crossed returning transports of such disabled persons and have stood on the tracks alongside of each other for a longer period of time. Those returning transports are insufficiently cared for. Nothing but sick, injured or weak people, mostly 50-60 to a car, are usually escorted by 3-4 men. There is neither sufficient care or food. The returnees made frequently unfavourable-but surely exaggerated-statements relative to their treatment in Germany and on the way. As a result of all this and of what the people could see with their own eyes, a psychosis of fear was evoked among the specialist workers resp. the whole transport to Germany. Several transport leaders of the 62d and the 63d in particular reported thereto in detail. In one case the leader of the transport of skilled workers observed with own eyes how a person who died of hunger was unloaded from a returning transport on the side track. (1st Lt. Hofman of the 63rd transport Station Darniza). Another time it was reported that 3 dead had to be deposited by the side of the tracks on the way and had to be left behind unburied by the escort. It is also regrettable that these disabled persons arrive here without any identification. According to the reports of the transport commanders one gets the impression that these persons unable to work are assembled, penned into the wagons and are sent off provided only by a few men escort, and without special care for food and medical or other attendance. The Labor Office at the place of arrival as well as the transport commanders confirm this impression." (054-PS)

Mothers in childbirth shared cars with those infected with tuberculosis or venereal diseases. Babies when born were hurled out of windows. Dying persons lay on the bare floors of freight cars without even the small comfort of straw. These conditions are revealed in an interdepartmental report prepared by Dr. Gutkelch in Rosenberg's Ministry, dated 30 September 1942, from which the following quotation is taken:

"How necessary this interference was is shown by the fact that this train with returning laborers had stopped at the same place where a train with newly recruited Eastern laborers had stopped. Because of the corpses in the trainload of returning laborers, a catastrophe might have been precipitated had it not been for the mediation of Mrs. Miller. In this train women gave birth to babies who were thrown out of the windows during the journey, people having tuberculosis and venereal diseases rode in the same car, dying people lay in freight cars without straw, and one of the dead was thrown on the railway embankment. The same must have occurred in other returning transports." (084-PS)

Some aspects of Nazi transport were described by Sauckel himself in a decree which he issued on 20 July 1942, (2241-PS). The original decree is published in section Bla, page 48e of a book entitled "Die Beschaeftigung von auslaendischen Arbeitskraeften in Deutschland." The decree reads, in part, as follows:

"According to reports of tansportation commanders (Transportleiters) presented to me, the special trains provided by the German railway have frequently been in a really deficient condition. Numerous windowpanes have been missing in the coaches. Old French coaches without lavatories have been partly employed so that the workers had to fit up an emptied compartment as a lavatory. In other cases, the coaches were not heated in winter so that the lavatories quickly became unusable because the water system was frozen and the flushing apparatus was therefore without water." (2241-PS)

Many of the foregoing documents, it will be noted, consist of complaints by functionaries of the Rosenberg ministry or by others concerning conditions under which foreign workers were recruited and made to live. These documents establish not only the facts therein recited, but also show that the Nazi conspirators had knowledge of such conditions. Notwithstanding their knowledge of these conditions, however, the Nazi conspirators continued to countenance and assist in the enslavement of a vast number of citizens of occupied countries.

Once within Germany, slave laborers were subjected to treatment of an unusually brutal and degrading nature. The character of Nazi treatment was in part made plain by the conspirator's own statements. Sauckel declared on one occasion:

"All the men must be fed, sheltered and treated in such a way as to exploit them to the highest possible extent at the lowest conceivable degree of expenditure." (016-PS)

Force and brutality as instruments of production found a ready adherent in Speer who, in the presence of Sauckel, said at a meeting of the Central Planning Board:

"We must also discuss the slackers. Ley has ascertained that the sicklist decreased to one-fourth or one-fifth in factories where doctors are on the staff who are examining the sick men. There is nothing to be said against SS and police taking drastic steps and putting those known as slackers into concentration camps. There is no alternative. Let it happen several times and the news will soon go round." (R-124)

At a later meeting of the Central Planning Board, Field Marshall Milch agreed that so far as workers were concerned,

"The list of the shirkers should be entrusted to Himmler's trustworthy hands." (R-124)

Milch made particular reference to foreign workers by stating:

"It is therefore not possible to exploit fully all the foreigners unless we compel them by piece-work or we have the possibility of taking measures against foreigners who are not dong their bit." (R-124)

The policy as actually executed was even more Draconian than the policy as planned by the conspirators. Impressed workers were underfed and overworked. They were forced to live in grossly overcrowded camps where they were held as virtual prisoners and were otherwise denied adequate shelter. They were denied adequate clothing, adequate medical care and treatment and, as a result, suffered from many diseases and ailments. They were generally forced to work long hours up to and beyond the point of exhaustion. They were beaten and subjected to inhuman indignities.

An example of mistreatment is found in the conditions which prevailed at Krupp factories. Foreign laborers at the Krupp Works were given insufficient foot to enable them to perform the work required of them. A memorandum upon Krupp stationery to Mr. Hupe. director of the Krupp Locomotive Factory in Essen, dated 14 March 1942, states:

"During the last few days we established that the food for the Russians employed here is so miserable, that the people are getting weaker from day to day.

"Investigations showed that single Russians are not able to place a piece of metal for turning into position for instance, because of lack of physical strength. The same conditions exist at all places of work where Russians are employed." (D-316)

The condition of foreign workers in Krupp workers camps is described in detail in an affidavit executed in Essen, Germany, on 15 October 1945 by Dr. Wilhelm Jager, who was the senior camp doctor. Dr. Jager makes the following statement:

"* * * Conditions in all these camps were extremely bad. The camps were greatly overcrowded. In some camps there were twice as many people in a barrack as health conditions permitted. At Kramerplatz, the inhabitants slept in treble-tiered bunks, and in the other camps they slept in double-tiered bunks. The health authorities prescribed a minimum space between beds of 50 em, but the bunks in these camps were separated by a maximum of 20-30 em.

"The diet prescribed for the eastern workers was altogether insufficient. They were given 1,000 calories a day less than the minimum prescribed for any German. Moreover, while German workers engaged in the heaviest work received 5,000 calories a day, the eastern workers in comparable jobs received only 2,000 calories. The eastern workers were given only 2 meals a day and their bread ration. One of these two meals consisted of a thin, watery soup. I had no assurance that the eastern workers, in fact, received the minimum which was prescribed. Subsequently, in 1943, when I undertook to inspect the food prepared by the cooks, I discovered a number of instances in which food was withheld from the workers.

"The plan for food distribution called for a small quantity of meat per week. Only inferior meats, rejected by the veterinary such as horse meat or tuberculin infested was permitted for this purpose. This meat was usually cooked into a soup.

"The clothing of the eastern workers was likewise completely inadequate. They worked and slept in the same clothing in which they had arrived from the east. Virtually all of them had no overcoats and were compelled, therefore, to use their blankets as coats in cold and rainy weather. In view of the shortage of shoes many workers were forced to go to work in their bare feet, even in the winter. Wooden shoes were given to some of the workers, but their quality was such as to give the workers sore feet. Many workers preferred to go to work in their bare feet rather than endure the suffering caused by the wooden shoes. Apart from the wooden shoes, no clothing of any kind was issued to the workers until the latter part of 1943, when a single blue suit was issued to some of them. To my knowledge, this represented the sole issue of clothing to the workers from the time of their arrival until the American forces entered Essen.

"Sanitary conditions were exceedingly bad. At Kramerplatz, where approximately 1,200 eastern workers were crowded into the rooms of an old school, the sanitary conditions were atrocious in the extreme. Only 10 childrens' toilets were available for the 1,200 inhabitants. At Dechenschule, 15 childrens' toilets were available of the 400-500 eastern workers. Excretion contaminated the entire floors of these lavatories. There were also few facilities for washing. The supply of bandages, medicine, surgical instruments, and other medical supplies at these camps was likewise altogether insufficient. As a consequence, only the very worst cases were treated.

"The percentage of eastern workers who were ill was twice as great as among the Germans. Tuberculosis was particularly widespread among the eastern workers. The T. B. rate among them was 4 times the normal rate of (2 percent eastern workers, German 5 percent). At Dechenschule approximately 2½ percent of the workers suffered from open T. B. These were all active T. B. cases. The Tartars and Kirghis suffered most; as soon as they were overcome by this disease they collapsed like flies. The cause was bad housing, the poor quality and insufficient quantity of food, overwork, and insufficient rest.

"These workers were likewise afflicted with spotted fever. Lice the carrier of this disease, together with countless fleas, bugs and other vermin tortured the inhabitants of these camps. As a result of the filthy conditions of the camps nearly all eastern workers were afflicted with skin disease. The shortage of food also caused many cases of Hunher-Oedem, Nephritis, and Shighakruse.

"It was the general rule that workers were compelled to go to work unless a camp doctor had prescribed that they were unfit for work. At Seumannstrasse, Grieperstrasse, Germanistrasse, Kapitanlehmannstrasse, and Dechenschule, there was no daily sick call. At these camps, the doctors did not appear for two or three days. As a consequence, workers were forced to go to work despite illnesses."

"Camp Humboldstrasse has been inhabitated by Italian prisoners of war. After it had been destroyed by an air raid, the Italians were removed and 600 Jewish females from Buchenwald Concentration Camp were brought in to work at the Krupp factories. Upon my first visit at Camp Humboldstrasse, I found these females suffering from open festering wounds and other diseases.

"I was the first doctor they had seen for at least a fortnight. There was no doctor in attendance at the camp. There was no medical supplies in the camp. They had no shoes and went about in their bare feet. The sole clothing of each consisted of a sack with holes for their arms and head. Their hair was shorn. The camp was surrounded by barded wire and closely guarded by SS guards.

"The amount of food in the camp was extremely meager and of very poor quality. The houses in which they lived consisted of the ruins of former barracks and they afforded no shelter against rain and other weather conditions. I reported to my superiors that the guards lived and slept outside their barracks as one could not enter them without being attacked by 10, 20 and up to 50 fleas. One camp doctor employed by me refused to enter the camp again after he had been bitten very badly. I visited this camp with a Mr. Green on two occasions and both times we ??? camp badly bitten. We had treat difficulty in getting fid of the fleas and insects which had attacked us. As a result of this attack by insects of this camp, I got large boils on my arms and the rest of my body. I asked my superiors at the Krupp works to undertake the necessary steps to d-louse the camp so as to put an end to this unbearable, vermin-infested condition. Despite this report, I did not find any improvement in sanitary conditions at the camp on my second visit a fortnight later.

"When foreign workers finally became too sick to work or were completely disabled they were returned to the Labour Exchange in Essen and from there, they were sent to a camp at Friedrichsfeld. Among persons who were returned over to the Labour Exchange were aggravated cases of tuberculosis, malaria, neurosis, career which could not be treated by operation, old age, and general feebleness. I know nothing about conditions at this camp because I have never visited it. I only know that it was a place to which workers who no longer of any use to Krupp. were sent.

"My colleagues and I reported all of the foregoing matters to Mr. Ihh, Director of Friedrich Krupp A. G. Dr. Wiels, personal physician of Gustav Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach, Senior Camp Leader Kupke, and at all times to the health department. Moreover, I know that these gentlemen personally visited the camps.

"(Singed) Dr. Wilhelm Jager." (D-288)

The conditions just described were not confined to the Krupp factories but existed throughout Germany. A report of the Polish Main Committee to the Administration of the Government-General of Poland, dated 17 May 1944, describes in similar terms the situation of Polish workers in Germany (R-103):

"The cleanliness of many overcrowded camp rooms is contrary to the most elementary requirements. Often there is no opportunity to obtain warm water for washing; therefore the cleanest parents are unable to maintain even the most primitive standard of hygiene for their children or often even to wash their only set of linen. A consequence of this is the spreading of scabies which cannot be eradicated * * *

"We receive imploring letters from the camps of Eastern workers and their prolific families beseeching us for food. The quantity and quality of camp rations mentioned therein-the so-called fourth grade of rations-is absolutely insufficient to maintain the energies spent in heavy work. 3.5 kg. of bread weekly and a thin soup at lunch time, cooked with seeds or other vegetables without any meat or fat, with a meager addition of potatoes now and then is a hunger ration for a heavy worker.

"Sometimes punishment consists of starvation which is inflicted, i.e. for refusal to wear the badge, 'East'. Such punishment has the result that workers faint at work (Klosterteich Camp, Gruenheim, Saxony). The consequence is complete exhaustion, an ailing state of health and tuberculosis. The spreading of tuberculosis among the Polish factory workers is a result of the deficient food rations meted out in the community camps because energy spent in heavy work cannot be replaced * * *."

"The call for help which reaches us, brings to light starvation and hunger, severe stomach intestinal trouble especially in the case of children resulting from the insufficiency of food which does not take into considerations the needs of children. Proper medical treatment or care for the sick are not available in the mass camps. * * *"

"In addition to these bad conditions, there is lack of systematic occupation for and supervision of these hosts of children which affects the life of prolific families in the camps. The children, left to themselves without schooling or religious care, must run wild and grow up illiterate. Idleness in rough surroundings may and will create unwanted results in these children * * *. An indication of the awful conditions this may lead to is given by the fact that in the camps for Eastern workers-(camp for Eastern workers, 'Waldlust', Post Office Lauf, Pegnitz)-there are cases of 8-year old delicate and undernourished children put to forced labor and perishing from such treatment.

"The fact that these bad conditions dangerously affect the state of health and the vitality of the workers is proved by the many cases of tuberculosis found in very young people returning from the Reich to the General-Government as unfit for work. Their state of health is usually so bad that recovery is out of the question. The reason is that a state of exhaustion resulting from overwork and a starvation diet is not recognized as an ailment until the illness betrays itself by high fever and fainting spells.

"Although some hostels for unfit workers have been provided as a precautionary measure, one can only go there when recovery may no longer be expected-(Neumarkt in Bavaria). Even there the incurables waste away slowly, and nothing is done even to alleviate the state of the sick by suitable food and medicines. There are children there with tuberculosis whose cure would not be hopeless and men in their prime who if sent home in time to their families in rural districts, might still be able to recover.

"No less suffering is caused by the separation of families when wives and mothers of small children are away form their families and sent to the Reich for forced labor. * * *"

"If, under these bad conditions, there is no moral support such as is normally based on regular family life, then at least such moral support which the religious feelings of the Polish population require should be maintained and increased. The elimination of religious services, religious practice and religious care from the life of the Polish workers, the prohibition of church attendance at a time when there is a religious service for other people and other measures show a certain contempt for the influence of religion on the feelings and opinions of the workers." (R-103)

Particularly harsh and brutal treatment was reserved for workers imported from the conquered Eastern territories. They lived in bondage, were quartered in stables with animals, and were denied the right of worship and the pleasures of human society. A document entitled "Directives on the Treatment of Foreign Farmworkers of Polish Nationality", issued by the Minister for Finance and Economy of Baden on 6 March 1941, describes this treatment (EC-68):

"The agencies of the Reich Food Administration (Reichsnaehrstand) State Peasant Association of Baden have received the result of the negotiations with the Higher SS and Police Officer in Stuttgart on 14 February 1941, with great satisfaction. Appropriate memoranda have already been turned over to the District Peasants' Associations. Below, I promulgate the individual regulations, as they have been laid down during the conference and how they are now to be applied accordingly:

"1. Fundamentally, farmworkers of Polish nationality no longer have the right to complain, and thus no complaints may be accepted any more by any official agency.

"2. The farmworkers of Polish nationality may not leave the localities in which they are employed, and have a curfew from 1 October to 31 March from 2000 hours to 0600 hours, and from 1 April to 30 September from 2100 hours to 0500 hours.

"3. The use of bicycles is strictly prohibited. Exceptions are possible for riding ot the place of work in the field if a relative of the employer or the employer himself is present.

"4. The visit of churches, regardless of faith, is strictly prohibited, even when there is no service in progress. Individual spiritual care by clergymen outside of the church is permitted.

"5. Visits to theaters, motion pictures or other cultural entertainment are strictly prohibited for farmworkers of Polish nationality.

"6. The visit of restaurants is strictly prohibited to farmworkers of Polish nationality except for one restaurant in the village, which will be selected by the Rural Councillor's office (Landratsamt), and then only one day per week. The day, which is determined as the day to visit the restaurant, will also be determined by the Landratsamt. This regulation does not change the curfew regulation mentioned above under No. 2.

"7. Sexual intercourse with women and girls is strictly prohibited, and where it is established, it must be reported.

"8. Gatherings of farmworkers of Polish nationality after work is prohibited, whether it is on other farms, in the stables, or in the living quarters of the Poles.

"9. The use of railroads, buses or other public conveyances by farmworkers of Polish nationality is prohibited.

"10. Permits to leave the village may only be granted in very exceptional cases, by the local police authority (Mayor's office). However, in no case may it be granted if he wants to visit a public agency on his own, whether it is a labor office or the District Peasants Association or whether he wants to change his place of employment.

"11. Arbitrary change of employment is strictly prohibited. The farmworkers of Polish nationality have to work daily so long as the interests of the enterprise demands it, and as it is demanded by the employer. There are no time limits to the working time.

"12. Every employer has the right to give corporal punishment toward farmworkers of Polish nationality, if instructions and good words fail. The employer may not be held accountable in any such case by an official agency.

"13. Farmworkers of Polish nationality should, if possible, be removed from the community of the home and they can be quartered in stables, etc. No remorse whatever should restrict such action.

"14. Report to the authorities is compulsory in all cases, when crimes have been committed by farmworkers of Polish nationality, which are to sabotage the enterprise or slow down work, for instance unwillingness to work, impertinent behavior; it is compulsory even in minor cases. An employer, who loses his Pole who must serve a longer prison sentence because of such a compulsory report, will receive another Pole from the competent labor office on request with preference.

"15. In all other cases, only the state police is still competent. "For the employer himself, severe punishment is contemplated if it is established that the necessary distance from farmworkers of Polish nationality has not been kept. The same applies to women and girls. Extra rations are strictly prohibited. Noncompliance to the Reich tariffs for farmworkers of Polish nationality will be punished by the competent labor office by the taking away of the worker." (EC-68)

The women of the conquered territories were led away against their will to serve as domestics. Sauckel described this program as follows:

"* * * In order to relieve considerably the German housewife, especially the mother with many children and the extremely busy farmwoman, and in order to avoid any further danger to their health, the Fuehrer also charged me with procurement of 400,000-500,000 selected, healthy and strong girls from the territories of the East for Germany." (016-PS)

Once captured, these Eastern women, by order of Sauckel, were bound to the household to which they were assigned, permitted at the most three hours of freedom a week, and denied the right to return to their homes. The decree issued by Sauckel containing instructions for housewives concerning Eastern household workers, provides in part, as follows:

"* * * There is no claim for free time. Female domestic workers from the East many, on principle, leave the household only to take care of domestic tasks. As a reward for good work, however, they may be given the opportunity to stay outside the home without work for 3 hours once a week. This leave must end with the on set of darkness, at the latest at 2000 hours. It is prohibited to enter restaurants, movies, or other theatres and similar establishments provided for German or foreign workers. Attending church is also prohibited. Special events may be arranged for eastern domestics in urban homes by the German Workers' Front, for Eastern domestics in rural homes by the Reich Food Administration with the German Women's League (Deutsches Frauenwerk). Outside the home, the Eastern domestic must always carry her work card as a personal pass.

"10. Vacations, Return to Homes.

"Vacations are not granted as yet. The recruiting of Eastern domestics is for an indefinite period." (3044-B-PS)

At all times the shadow of the Gestapo and the concentration camp hovered over the enslaved workers. As with the other major programs of the Nazi conspirators, Himmler's blackshirted SS formations were the instruments employed for enforcement. A secret order dated 20 February 1942, issued by Reichsfuehrer SS Himmler to SD and security police officers spells out the violence which was applied against the Eastern workers. (3040-PS):

"III. Combating violations against discipline.

"(1) According to the equal status of the manpower from the original Soviet Russian territory with prisoners of war, a strict discipline must be exercised in the quarters and at the working place. Violations against discipline, including work refusal and loafing at work, will be fought exclusively by the secret State police. The smaller cases will be settled by the leader of the guard according to instruction of the State police administration offices with measures as provided for in the enclosure. To break acute resistance, the guards shall be permitted to use also physical power against the manpower. But this may be done only for a cogent cause. The manpower should always be informed about the fact that they will be treated decently when conducting themselves with discipline and accomplishing good work.

"(2) In severe cases, that is in such cases where the measures at the disposal of the leader of the guard do not suffice, the State police office has to act with its means. Accordingly, they will be treated, as a rule, only with strict measures, that is with transfer to a concentration camp or with special treatment.

"(3) The transfer to a concentration camp is done in the usual manner.

"(4) In especially severe cases special treatment is to be requested at the Reich Security Main Office, stating personnel data and the exact history of the act.

"(5) Special treatment is hanging. It should not take place in the immediate vicinity of the camp. A certain number of manpower from the original Soviet Russian territory should attend the special treatment; at that time they are warned about the circumstances which led to this special treatment.

"(6) Should special treatment be required within the camp for exceptional reasons of camp discipline, this is also to be requested."

"VI. Sexual Intercourse.

"Sexual intercourse is forbidden to the manpower of the original Soviet Russian territory. By means of their closely confined quarters they have no opportunity for it. Should sexual intercourse be exercised nevertheless - especially among the individually employed manpower on the farms- the following is directed:

"(1) For every case of sexual intercourse with German countrymen or women, special treatment is to be requested for male manpower from the original Soviet Russian territory, transfer to a concentration camp for female manpower.

"(2) When exercising sexual intercourse with other foreign workers, the conduct of the manpower from the original Soviet Russian territory is to be punished as severe violation of discipline with transfer to a concentration camp."

"VIII. Search.

"(1) Fugitive workers from the original Soviet Russian territory are to be announced principally in the German search book (Fanndungsbuch). Furthermore, search measures are to be decreed locally.

"(2) When caught, the fugitive must receive special treatment * * *". (3040-PS)

6. USE OF SLAVE LABOR IN GERMAN WAR INDUSTRIES

The primary purpose of the slave labor program was to compel the people of the occupied countries to work for the German war economy. The decree appointing Sauckel Plenipotentiary General for Manpower declares the purpose of the appointment to be to facilitate acquisition of the manpower required for German war industries, and in particular the armaments industry, by centralizing under Sauckel responsibility for the recruitment and allocation of foreign labor and prisoners of war in these industries (1666-PS). This decree, signed by Hitler, Lammers and Keitel, and dated 21 March 1942, provides:

"In order to secure the manpower requisite for the war industries as a whole, and particularly for armaments, it is necessary that the utilization of all available manpower, including that of workers recruited (angeworbenen) abroad and of prisoners of war, should be subject to a uniform control, directed in a manner appropriate to the requirements of war industry, and further that an still incompletely utilized manpower in the greater German Reich, including the Protectorate, and in the General Government and in the occupied territories should be mobilized.

"Reichsstatthalter and Gauleiter Fritz Sauckel will carry out this task within the framework of the Four Year Plan, as Plenipotentiary General, for the utilization of labor. In that capacity he will be directly responsible to the Commissioner for the Four Year Plan.

"Section III (Wages) and Section V (Utilization of labor) of the Reich Labor Ministry, together with their subordinate authorities, will be placed at the disposal of the Plenipotentiary, General for the accomplishment of his task." (1666-PS)

Sauckel's success can be gauged from a letter he wrote to Hitler on 15 April 1943, containing a report on one year's activities:

"1. After one year's activity as Plenipotentiary for the Direction of Labor, I can report that 3,638,056 new foreign workers were given to the German war economy from 1 April of last year to 31 March this year.

"2. The 3,638,056 are distributed amongst the following branches of the German war economy

Armament-1,568,801." (407-VI-PS)

Further evidence of this use of enslaved foreign labor is found in a report of a meeting of the Central Planning Board on 16 February 1944, during which Field Marshal Milch stated:

"The armament industry employs foreign workmen to a large extent; according to the latest figures-40 percent." (R-124)

Moreover, according to tabulations of Speer's Ministry, as of 31 December 1944 approximately two million civilian foreign workers were employed directly in the manufacture of armaments and munitions (end products or components). (2520-PS)

Sauckel, Speer, and Keitel also succeeded in forcing foreign labor to construct military fortifications. Thus, citizens of France, Holland, and Belgium were compelled against their will to engage in the construction of the "Atlantic Wall". Hitler, in an order dated 8 September 1942, initialed by Keitel, decreed that:

"The extensive coastal fortifications which I have ordered to be erected in the area of Army Group West make it necessary that in the occupied territory all available workers should be committed and should give the fullest extent of their productive capacities. The previous allotment of domestic workers is insufficient. In order to increase it, I order the introduction of compulsory labor and the prohibition of changing the place of employment without permission of the authorities in the occupied territories. Furthermore, the distribution of food and clothing ration cards to those subject to labor draft should in the future depend on the possession of a certificate of employment. Refusal to accept an assigned job, as well as abandoning the place of work without the consent of the authorities in charge, will result in the withdrawal of the food and clothing ration cards. The GBA (Deputy General for Arbeitseinsatz) in agreement with the military commander as well as the Reich Commissar, will issue the corresponding decrees for execution." (556-2-PS)

Sauckel boasted to Hitler concerning the contribution of the forced labor program to the construction of the Atlantic Wall by Speer's Organization Todt (OT). In a letter to Hitler dated 17 May 1943, Sauckel wrote:

"* * * In addition to the labor allotted to the total German economy by the Arbeitseinsatz since I took office, the Organization Todt was supplied with new labor continually.

"Thus, the Arbeitseinsatz has done everything to help make possible the completion of the Atlantic Wall." (407-VIII-PS)

Similarly, Russian civilian were forced into labor battalions and compelled to build fortifications to be used against their own countrymen. A memorandum of the Rosenberg Ministry states that:

"* * * men and women in the theaters of operations have been and will be conscripted into labor battalions to be used in the construction of fortifications * * *." (031-PS)

In addition, the Nazi conspirators compelled Prisoners of War to engage in operations of war against their won country and its Allies. At a meeting of the Central Planning Board held on February 19, 1943, attended by Speer, Sauckel, and Field Marshall Milch, the following conversation occurred:

"Sauckel: If any prisoners are taken, there, they will be needed.

"Milch: We have made a request for an order that a certain percentage of men in the antiaircraft artillery must be Russians. 50,000 will be taken altogether; 30,000 are already employed as gunners. This is an amusing thing that Russians must work the guns." (R-124)

(At this point a series of official German Army photographs were offered in evidence. The first one shows Russian Prisoners of War acting as ammunition bearers during the attack upon Tschudowo. The second group consists of a series of official German Army photographs taken in July and August 1941 showing Russian prisoners of war in Latvia and the Ukraine being compelled to load and unload ammunition trains and trucks and being required to stack ammunition.)

This use of prisoners of war was in flagrant disregard of the rules of international law, particularly Article 6 of the Regulations annexed to Hague Convention Number 4 of 1907, which provides that the tasks of prisoners of war shall have no connection with the operations of war.

The Nazi conspirators made extensive use of prisoners of war not only in active operations of war but also in the German armament industry. A secret letter from the Reichminister of Labor to the Presidents of the Regional Labor Exchange Offices refers to an order of Goering to the effect that:

"Upon personal order of the Reich Marshal, 100,000 men are to be taken from among the French PWs not yet employed in armament industry, and are to be assigned to the armament industry (airplanes industry). Gaps in manpower supply resulting there from will be filled by Soviet PWs. The transfer of the above-named French PWs is to be accomplished by 1 October." (3005-PS)

A similar policy was followed with respect to Russian prisoners of war. In a secret memorandum issued from Hitler's headquarters on 31 October 1942, Keitel directed the execution of Hitler's order to use such prisoners in the German war economy (EC-194):

"The lack of workers is becoming an increasingly dangerous hindrance for the future German war and armament industry. The expected relief through discharges from the armed forces is uncertain as to the extent and date; however, its possible extent will be no means correspond to expectations and requirements in view of the great demand.

"The Fuehrer has now ordered that even the working power of the Russian prisoner of war should be utilized to a large extent by large scale assignment for the requirements of the war industry. The prerequisite for production is adequate nourishment. Also very small wages are to be planned for the most modest supply with a few consumers' goods (Genussmittel) for every day's life, eventual rewards for production."

"II. Construction and Armament Industry.

"a. Work units for constructions of all kind, particularly for the fortification of coastal defenses (concrete workers, unloading units for essential war plants).

"b. Suitable armament factories which have to be selected in such a way that their personnel should consist in the majority of prisoners of war under guidance and supervision (eventually after withdrawal and other employment of the German workers).

"III. Other War Industries.

"a. Mining as under II. b.

"b. Railroad construction units for building tracks etc.

"c. Agriculture and forestry in closed units. The utilization of Russian prisoners of war is to be regulated on the basis of above examples by:

"To I. The armed forces

"To II. The Reich Minister for Arms and Ammunition and the Inspector General for the German road system in agreement with the Reich Minister for Labor and Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces (Wi Rue Amt). Deputies of the Reich Minister for Arms and Ammunition are to be admitted to the prisoner of war camps to assist in the selection of skilled workers." (EC-194)

Goering, at a conference at the Air Ministry on 7 November 1941, also discussed the use of prisoners of war in the armament industry. The Top Secret notes on Goering's instructions as to the employment and treatment of prisoners of war in many phases of the German war industry read as follows (1206-PS):

"The Fuehrer's point of view as to employment of prisoners of war in war industries has changed basically. So far a total of 5 million prisoners of war-employed so far 2 million."

"For 4) In the Interior and the Protectorate, it would be ideal if entire factories could be manned by Russian PW's except the employees necessary for direction. For employment in the Interior and the Protectorate the following are to have priority:

"a. At the top coal mining industry.

"Order by the Fuehrer to investigate all mines as to suitability for employment of Russians. At times manning the entire plant with Russian laborers.

"Railroad-repair and industry workers are to be sought out from the PW's. Railroad is most important means of transportation in the East.

"c. Armament industries

"Preferably factories of armor and guns. Possibly also construction of parts for airplane engines. Suitable complete sections of factories to be manned exclusively by Russians. For the remainder employment in columns. Use in factories of tool machinery, production of farm tractors, generators, etc. In emergency, erect in individual places barracks for occasional workers which are used as unloading details and similar purposes. (Reich Minister of the Interior through communal authorities.)

"No employment where danger to men or their supply exists, i.e. factories exposed to explosives, waterworks, powerworks, etc. No contact with German population, especially no 'solidarity.' German worker as a rule is foreman of Russians. "Food is a matter of the Four Years' Plan. Supply their own food (cats, horses, etc.)

"Clothes, billeting, messing somewhat better than at home where part of the people live in caverns.

"Examination of physical fitness, in order to avoid importation of diseases.

"Clearing of mines as a rule by Russians if possible by selected Russian engineers." (1206-PS)

Speer also sponsored and applied the policy of using prisoners of war in the armament industry. In a speech to the Nazi Gauleiters of 24 February 1942, Speer said:

"I therefore proposed to the Fuehrer at the end of December that all my labor force, including specialists be released for mass employment in the East. Subsequently the remaining PW's, about 10,000 were put at disposal of the armaments industry by me." (1435-PS)

Speer also reported at the 36th meeting of the Central Planning Board, held on 22 April 1943, that only 30% of the Russian prisoners of war were engaged in the armament industry. This he found unsatisfactory. Speer continued:

"There is a specified statement showing in what sectors the Russian PW's have been distributed, and this statement is quite interesting. It shows that the armaments industry only received 30%. I always complained about this."

"The 90,000 Russian PW's employed in the whole of the armaments industry are for the greatest part skilled men." (R-124)

Sauckel, who was appointed Plenipotentiary General for the utilization of labor for the express purpose, among others, of integrating prisoners of war into the German war industry, made it plain that prisoners of war were to be compelled to serve the German armament industry. His labor mobilization program contains the following statement:

"All prisoners of war, from the territories of the West as well as of the East, actually in Germany, must be completely incorporated into the German armament and nutrition industries. Their production must be brought to the highest possible level." (016-PS)

7. THE CONCENTRATION CAMP PROGRAM OF EXTERMINATION THROUGH WORK

A special Nazi program combined the brutality and the purposes of the slave labor program with those of the concentration camp. The Nazis placed Allied nationals in concentration camps and forced them, along with the other inmates of the concentration camps, to work in the armaments industry under conditions designed to exterminate them. This was the Nazi program of extermination through work.

The program was initiated in the spring of 1942. It was outlined as follows in a letter to Himmler, dated 30 April 1942, from his subordinate Pohl, SS Obergruppenfuehrer and General of the Waffen SS:

"Today I report about the present situation of the concentration camps and about measures I have taken to carry out your order of the 3rd March 1942."

"1. The war has brought about a marked change in the structure of the concentration camps and has changed their duties with regard to the employment of the prisoners. The custody of prisoners for the sole reasons of security, education, or prevention is no longer the main consideration. The mobilization of all prisoners who are fit for work for purposes of the war now, and for purposes of construction in the forthcoming peace, come to the foreground more and more.

"2. From this knowledge some necessary measures result with the aim to transform the concentration camps into organizations more suitable for the economic tasks, whilst they were formerly merely politically interested.

"3. For this reason I have gathered together all the leaders of the former inspectorate of Concentration Camps, all Camp Commanders, and all managers and supervisors of work on the 23rd and 24th of April, 1942; I have explained personally to them this new development. I have compiled in the order attached the main essentials, which have to be brought into effect with the utmost urgency if the commencement of work for purposes of the armament industry is not to be delayed." (R-129)

The order referred to in paragraph 3 above set the framework for a program of relentless exploitation, providing in part as follows:

"4. The camp commander alone is responsible for the employment of the labor available. This employment must be, in the true meaning of the word, exhaustive, in order to obtain the greatest measure of performance. Work is allotted by the Chief of the Department D centrally and alone. The camp-commanders themselves may not accept on their own initiative work offered by third parties and may not negotiate about it.

"5. There is no limit to working hours. Their duration depends on the kind of working establishments in the camps and the kind of work to be done. They are fixed by the camp commanders alone.

"6. Any circumstances which may result in a shortening of working hours (e.g. meals, roll-calls) have therefore to be restricted to the minimum which cannot be condensed any more. It is forbidden to allow long walks to the place of working and noon intervals only for eating purposes." (R-129)

This armaments production program was not merely a scheme for mobilizing the manpower potential of the camps. It was directly integrated into the larger Nazi program of extermination. A memorandum of an agreement between Himmler and the Minister of Justice, Thierack sets for the Nazi objective of extermination through work:

"* * * 2. The delivery of anti-social elements from the execution of their sentence to the Reich Fuehrer of SS to be worked to death. Persons under protective arrest, Jews, Gypsies, Russians and Ukrainians, Poles with more than 3-year sentences, Czechs and Germans with more than 8-year sentences, according to the decision of the Reich Minister for Justice. First of all the worst anti-social elements amongst those just mentioned are to be handed over. I shall inform the Fuehrer of this through Reichsleiter Bormann."

"14. It is agreed that, in consideration of the intended aims of the Government for the clearing up of the Eastern problems, in future Jews, Poles, Gypsies, Russians and Ukrainians are no longer to be judged by the ordinary courts, so far as punishable offenses are concerned, but are to be dealt with by the Reich Fuehrer of SS. This does not apply to civil lawsuits, nor to Poles whose names are announced or entered in the German Racial Lists." (654-PS)

In September, 1942, Speer arranged to bring this new source of labor within his jurisdiction. Speer convinced Hitler that significant production could be obtained only if the concentration camp prisoners were employed in factories under the technical control of the Speer Ministry instead of in camps. In fact, without Speer's co-operation, it would have been difficult to utilize the prisoners on any large scale for war production since he would not allocate to Himmler the machine tools and other necessary equipment. Accordingly, it was agreed that the prisoners were to be exploited in factories under Speer's control. to compensate Himmler for surrendering this jurisdiction to Speer, Speer proposed, and Hitler agreed, that Himmler would receive a share of the armaments output, fixed in relation to the man hours contributed by his prisoners. The minutes of Speer's conference with Hitler on 20, 21, 22 September 1942, are as follows (R-124):

"* * * I pointed out to the Fuehrer that, apart from an insignificant amount of work, no possibility exists of organizing armament production in the concentration camps, because:

"1. the machine tools required are missing,

"2. there are no suitable premises.

"Both these assets would be available in the armaments industry, if use could be made of them by a second shift.

"The Fuehrer agrees to my proposal, that the numerous factories set up outside towns for ARP reasons, should release their workers for supplementing the second shift in town factories and should in return be supplied with labor from the concentration camps-also two shifts.

"I pointed out to the Fuehrer the difficulties which I expect to encounter if Reichsfuehrer SS Himmler should be able, as he requests, to exercise authoritative influence over these factories. The Fuehrer, too, does not consider such an influence necessary.

"The Fuehrer however agrees that Reichsfuehrer SS Himmler should draw advantages from making his prisoners available; he should get equipment for his division.

"I suggest to give him a share in kind (war equipment) in ratio to the working hours done by his prisoners. A 3-5% share is discussed, the equipment also being calculated according to working hours. The Fuehrer would agree to such a solution.

"The Fuehrer is prepared to order the additional delivery of this equipment and weapons to the SS, according to a list submitted to him.' (R-124)

After a demand for concentration camp labor had been created, and a mechanism set up by Speer for exploiting this labor in armament factories, measures were evolved for increasing the supply to victims for extermination through work. A steady flow was assured by the agreement between Himmler and the Minister of Justice mentioned above. This was implemented by such programs as the following, expressed in Sauckel's letter of 26 November 1942 to Presidents of Landes Employment Offices regarding the program for the evacuation of Poles from the Lublin district:

"The Poles who are to be evacuated as a result of this measure will be put into concentration camps and put to work where they are criminal or asocial elements." (L-61)

General measures were supplemented by special drives for persons who would not otherwise have been sent to concentration camps. For example, for "reasons of war necessity" Himmler ordered on 17 December 1942 that at least 35,000 prisoners qualified for work should be transferred immediately to concentration camps, (1063-D-PS). The order provided that:

"For reasons of war necessity not to be discussed further here, the Reichsfuehrer SS and Chief of the German Police on 14 December 1942 has ordered that until the end of January 1943, at least 35,000 prisoners qualified for work, are to be sent to the concentration camps. In order to reach this number, the following measures are required:

"1. As of now (so far until 1 Feb. 1943) all eastern workers or such foreign workers who have been fugitives, or who have broken contracts, and who do not belong to allied, friendly or neutral States are to be brought by the quickest means to the nearest concentration camps * * *.

"2. The commanders and the commandants of the security police and the security service, and the chiefs of the State Police Headquarters will check immediately on the basis of a close and strict ruling.

a. the prisons

b. the labor reformatory camps

"All prisoners qualified for work, if it is essentially and humanly possible, will be committed at once to the nearest concentration camp, according to the following instructions, for instance also if penal procedures were to be established in the near future. Only such prisoners who in the interest of investigation procedures are to remain absolutely in solitary confinement can be left there.

"Every single laborer counts!" (1063-D-PS)

Measures were also adopted to insure that extermination through work was practiced with maximum efficiency. Subsidiary concentration camps were established near important war plants. Speer has admitted that he personally toured Upper Austria and selected sites for concentration camps near various munitions factories in the area. This admission appears in the transcript of an interrogation of Speer under oath on 18 October 1945, in which Speer stated:

"The fact that we were anxious to use workers from concentration camps in factories and to establish small concentration camps near the factories in order to use the manpower that was available there was a general fact. But it did not only come up on connection with this trip." [i.e. Speer's trip to Austria]. (3720-PS)

Goering endorsed this use of concentration camp labor and asked for more. In a teletype which Goering sent to Himmler on 14 February 1944, he stated:

"At the same time I ask you to put at my disposal as great a number of concentration camp (KZ-) convicts as possible for air armament, as this kind of manpower proved to be very useful according to previous experience. The situation of the air war makes subterranean transfer of industry necessary. For work of this kind concentration camp (KZ-) convicts can be especially well concentrated at work and in the camp." (1584-I-PS)

Speer subsequently assumed responsibility for this program, and Hitler promised Speer that if the necessary labor for the program could not be obtained, a hundred thousand Hungarian Jews would be brought in by the SS. Speer's record of conferences with Hitler on April 6 and 7, 1944, contain the following quotation:

"* * * Suggested to the Fuehrer that, due to lack of builders and equipment, the second big building project should not be set up in German territory, but in close vicinity to the border on suitable soil (preferable on grave base and with transport facilities) on French, Belgian or Dutch territory. The Fuehrer agrees to this suggestion if the works could be set up behind a fortified zone. For the suggestion of setting this plant up in French territory speaks mainly the fact that it would be much easier to procure the necessary workers. Nevertheless, the Fuehrer asks an attempt be made to set up the second works in a safer area, namely in the Protectorate. If it should prove impossible there, too, to get hold of the necessary workers, the Fuehrer himself will contact the Reichsfuehrer SS and will give an order that the required 100,000 men are to be made available by bringing in Jews from Hungary. Stressing the fact that the building organization of the Industriegemeinschaft Schlesien Silesia was a failure, the Fuehrer demands that these works must be built by the O.T. exclusively and that the workers should be made available by the Reichsfuehrer SS. He wants to hold a meeting shortly in order to discuss details with all the men concerned." (R-124)

The character of the treatment inflicted on Allied nationals and other victims of concentration camps while they were being worked to death is described in an official report prepared by a U.S. Congressional Committee which inspected the liberated camps at the request of General Eisenhower (L-159). The report states in part:

"* * * The treatment accorded to these prisoners in the concentration camps was generally as follows: They were herded together in some wooden barracks not large enough for one-tenth of their number. They were forced to sleep on wooden frames covered with wooden boards in tiers of two, three and even four, sometimes with no covering, sometimes with a bundle of dirty rags serving both as pallet and coverlet.

"Their food consisted generally of about one-half of a pound of black bread per day and a bowl of watery soup for noon and night, and not always that. Owing to the great numbers crowded into a small space and to the lack of adequate sustenance, lice and vermin multiplied, disease became rampant, and those who did not soon die of disease or torture began the long, slow process of starvation. Notwithstanding the deliberate starvation program inflicted upon these prisoners by lack of adequate food, we found no evidence, that the people of Germany as a whole were suffering from any lack of sufficient food or clothing. The contrast was so striking that the only conclusion which we could reach was that the starvation of the inmates of these camps was deliberate.

"Upon entrance into these camps, newcomers were forced to work either at an adjoining war factory or were placed 'in commando' on various jobs in the vicinity, being returned each night to their stall in the barracks. Generally a German criminal was placed in charge of each 'block' or shed in which the prisoners slept. Periodically he would choose the one prisoner of his block who seemed the most alert or intelligent or showed the most leadership qualities. These would report to the guards' room and would never be heard from again. The generally-accepted belief of the prisoners was that these were shot or gassed or hanged and then cremated. A refusal to work or an infraction of the rules usually meant flogging and other types of torture, such as having the fingernails pulled out, and in each case usually ended in death after extensive suffering. The policies herein described constituted a calculated and diabolical program of planned torture and extermination on the part of those who were in control of the German Government * * *."

"On the whole, we found this camp to have been operated and administered much in the same manner as Buchenwald had been operated and managed. When the efficiency of the workers decreased as a result of the conditions under which they were required to live, their rations were decreased as punishment. This brought about a vicious circle in which the weak became weaker and were ultimately exterminated." (L-159)

Such was the cycle of work, torture, starvation and death for concentration camp labor-labor which Goering, which requesting that more of it be placed at his disposal, said had proved very useful; labor which Speer was "anxious" to use in the factories under his control.

8. THE SPECIAL RESPONSIBILITY OF SAUCKEL

Sauckel bears special responsibility for the Nazi slave labor program and the manner in which it was executed. Sauckel was appointed as Plenipotentiary General for Manpower because he was an old and trusted Nazi. He has certified, on 17 November 1945, that he held the following positions:

"1. Member of Nationalsozialistischen Deutschen Arbeiterpartei (1925-1945). (Member of National Socialist German Workers Party. Member No. 1395.)

2. Member of Reichstag (Mitglied des Reichstags) (1933-1945).

3. Gauleiter of Thuringia (1927-1945).

4. Member of Thuringian legislature (Landtag) 1927-1933/34).

5. Minister of Interior and head of Thuringian State Ministry (May 1933).

6. Reichsstatthalter for Thuringia (1933-1945).

7. SA Obergruppenfuehrer (November 1937-1945).

8. SS Obergruppenfuehrer (January 1942-1945).

9. Administrator Berlin-Suhler Waffen & Fahrzeugwerke (1935).

10. Head of Gustloff-Werke Nationalsozialistrische Industrie-Stiftung (1936). Honorary Head of Foundation.

Sauckel's official responsibilites are borne out by other evidence. His appointment as Plenipotentiary-General for Manpower was effected by a decree of 21 March 1942 signed by Hitler, Lammers, and Keitel. By that decree (1666-PS) Sauckel was given authority as well as responsibility subordinate only to that of Hitler and Goering for all matters relating to recruitment, allocation, and handing of foreign and domestic manpower. Goering, to whom Sauckel was directly responsible, abolished the recruitment and allocation agencies for the Four Year Plan, delegated their powers to Sauckel and placed his far-reaching authority, as deputy for the Four Year Plan, at Sauckel's disposal. This was the result of Goering's decree dated 27 March 1942 (1666-PS) and providing as follows:

"In pursuance of the Fuehrer's Decree of 21 March 1942 (RGBl I, 179), I decree as follows:

"1. My manpower sections (Geschaeftsgruppen Arbeitseinsatz) are hereby abolished (circular letter of 22 Oct 1936/St M. Dev. 265). Their duties (recruitment and allocation of manpower, regulations for labor conditions (Arbeitsbedingungen)) are taken over by the Plenipotentiary General for Arbeitseinsatz, who is directly under me.

"2. The Plenipotentiary General for Arbeitseinsatz will be responsible for regulating the conditions of labor (wage policy) employed in the Reich Territory, having regard to the requirements of Arbeitseinsatz.

"3. The Plenipotentiary General for Arbeitseinsatz is part of the Four Year Plan. In cases where new legislation is required, or existing laws required to be modified, he will submit appropriate proposals to me.

"4. The Plenipotentiary General for Arbeitseinsatz will have at his disposal for the performance of his task the right delegated to me by the Fuehrer for issuing instructions to the higher Reich authorities, their branches and the Party offices, and their associated organisms and also the Reich Protector, the General-Governor, the Commander-in-Chief, and heads of the civil administrations. In the case of ordinances and instructions of fundamental importance a report is to be submitted to me in advance." (1666-PS)

By a Hitler decree of 30 September 1942 Sauckel was given extraordinary powers over the civil and military authorities of the territories occupied by Germany. The decree (1903-PS) provided as follows:

"I herewith authorize the Deputy General for the Arbeitseinsatz, Reich-governor and district leader (Gauleiter) Fritz Sauckel to take all necessary measures for the enforcement of my decree referring to a Deputy General for the Arbeitseinsatz of 21 March 1942 (Reichsgesetzblatt, I, page 179) according to his own judgment in the Greater German Reich, in the Protectorate, and in the Government General (General-government) as well as in the occupied territories, measures which will safeguard under all circumstances the regulated deployment of labor (Geordneter Arbeitseinsatz) for the German war-economy. For this purpose he many appoint commissioners (Beauftragte) to the bureaus of the military and civilian administration. These are subordinated directly to Deputy General for the Arbeitseinsatz. In order to carry out their tasks, they are entitled to issue directives to the competent military and civilian authorities in charge of the Arbeitseinsatz and of wage-policy.

"More detailed directives will be issued by the Deputy General for the Arbeitseinsatz.

"Fuehrer-Headquarters, 30 Sept. 1942.

"The Fuehrer

"(singed) Adolph Hitler." (1903-PS)

Within a month after his appointment, Sauckel sent Rosenberg his "Labor Mobilization Program", which might more appropriately be termed Sauckel's "Charter of Enslavement." This program envisaged the forcible recruitment and the maximum exploitation of the entire labor resources of the conquered areas and of prisoners of war in the interests of the Nazi war machine, at the lowest conceivable degree of expenditure to the German State. Sauckel explained his plans in these terms:

"It must be emphasized, however, that an additional tremendous number of foreign labor has to be found for the Reich. The greatest pool for that purpose are the occupied territories of the East. Consequently, it is an immediate necessity to use the human reserves of the Conquered Soviet Territory to the fullest extent. Should we not succeed in obtaining the necessary amount of labor on a voluntary basis, we must immediately institute conscription or forced labor. "Apart from the prisoners of war still in the occupied territories, we must, therefore, requisition skilled or unskilled male and female labor from the Soviet territory from the age of 15 up for the labor mobilization * * *."

"The complete employment of all prisoners of war as well as the use of a gigantic number of new foreign civilian workers, men and women, has become an undisputable necessity for the solution of the mobilization of labor program in this war." (016-PS)

Sauckel proceeded to implement this "Charter of Enslavement" with certain basic directives. In Regulation No. 4, which he issued on 7 May 1942, Sauckel provided that if voluntary recruitment of foreign workers was unsuccessful, compulsory service should be instituted. This regulation provides:

"The recruitment of foreign labor will be done on the fundamental basis of volunteering. Where, however, in the occupied territories the appeal for volunteers does not suffice, obligatory service and drafting must, under all circumstances, be resorted to. This is an indisputable requirement of our labor situation." (3044-PS)

Sauckel provided also for the allocation of foreign labor in the order of its importance to the Nazi war machine. Sauckel's regulation No. 10 of 22 August 1942 had these aims:

"* * * 3. The resources of manpower that are available in the occupied territories are to be employed primarily to satisfy the requirements of importance for the war, in Germany itself. In allocating the said labor resources in the Occupied Territories, the following order of priority will be observed:

"(a) Labor required for the troops, the occupation authorities, and the civil authorities;

"(b) Labor required for the German armaments (Reestungen);

"(c) Labor required for food and agriculture;

"(d) Labor required for industrial work other than armaments, which is in the interest of Germany;

"(e) Labor required for industrial work in the interests of the population of the territory in question." (3044-A-PS)

Sauckel and agencies subordinate to him exercised exclusive authority over the recruitment of workers from every area in Europe occupied by, controlled by, or friendly to the German nation. Sauckel affirmed this authority in the following decree:

"The recruitment of foreign labor in the areas occupied by Germany, in allied, friendly or neutral states will be carried out exclusively by my commissioners, or by the competent German military or civil agencies for the tasks of labor mobilization."

"For the carrying out of recruitment in allied, friendly or neutral foreign countries, my commissioners are solely responsible." (3044-PS)

Sauckel participated in the formulation of overall labor requirements for Germany and assigned quotas to be filled by and with the assistance of the individuals and agencies mentioned above, with knowledge that force and brutality were the only means whereby his demands could be met. Thus, the Lammer's report states (1292-PS):

"1. A conference took place with the Fuehrer today which was attended by:

"The Plenipotentiary for the Employment of Labor Gauleiter Sauckel,

"The Secretary for Armament and War Production, Speer,

"The Chief of the Supreme Command of the Army, General Field Marshal Keitel, General Field Marshal Milch,

"The Acting Reich Minister for Food and Agriculture State Secretary Backe,

"The Minister of the Interior, Reichsfuehrer SS Himmler, and myself.

(The Minister for Foreign Affairs and the Minister of National Economy had repeatedly asked to be permitted to participate prior to the Conference, but the Fuehrer did not wish their attendance.)

"The Fuehrer declared in his introductory remarks:

'I want a clear picture:

(1) How many workers are required for the maintenance of German War Economy?

(a) For the maintenance of present output?

(b) To increase its output?

(2) How many workers can be obtained from Occupied Countries, or how many can still be gained in the Reich by suitable means (increased output)? For one thing, it is this matter of making up for losses by death, infirmity, the constant fluctuation of workers, and so forth, and further it is a matter of procuring additional workers.'

"The Plenipotentiary for the Employment of Labor, Sauckel, declared that, in order to maintain the present pool of workers, he would have to add at least 2½ but probably 3 million new workers in 1944. Otherwise production would fall off. Reichsminister Speer declared that he needs an additional 1.3 million laborers. However, this would depend on whether it will be possible to increase production of iron ore. Should this not be possible, he would need no additional workers. Procurement of additional workers from Occupied Territory would, however, be subject to the condition that these workers will not be withdrawn from armament and auxiliary industries already working there. For this would mean a decrease of production of these industries which he could not tolerate. Those, for instance, who are already working in France in industries mentioned above, must be protected against being sent to work in Germany by the Plenipotentiary for the Employment of Labor. The Fuehrer agreed with the opinions of Reichsminister Speer and emphasized that the measures taken by the Plenipotentiary for the Employment of Labor should order no circumstances which would lead to the withdrawal of workers from armament and auxiliary industries working in occupied territories, because such a shift of workers would only cause disturbance of production in occupied countries.

"The Fuehrer called attention to the fact that at least 250,000 laborers will be required for preparations against air attacks in the field of civilian air raid protection. For Vienna alone, 2,000-2,5000 are required immediately. The Plenipotentiary for the Employment of Labor must add at least 4 million workers to the manpower pool, considering that he requires 2½ million workers for maintenance of the present level, that Reich Minister Speer needs 1.3 million additional workers, and that the above-mentioned preparations for security measures against air attacks call for 0.25 million laborers."

"The Reichsfuehrer SS explained that the enforcement agents put at his disposal are extremely few, but that he would try helping the Sauckel project to succeed by increasing them and working them harder. The Reichsfuehrer SS made immediately available 2,000 to 2,500 men from concentration camps for air raid preparations in Vienna."

"Results of the Conference:

"(1) The Plenipotentiary for Employment of Labor shall procure at least 4 million new workers from occupied territories." (1292-PS)

Moreover, Sauckel, in requesting the assistance of the Army for the recruitment of 1,000,000 men had women from the occupied Eastern territories, informed Keitel that prompt action was required; and that, as in all other occupied countries, pressure had to be used if other measures were not successful (3012-PS). Finally, Sauckel was informed by Rosenberg that the enslavement of foreign labor was achieved by force and brutality (018-PS). Notwithstanding his knowledge of conditions, Sauckel continued to request greater supplies of manpower from the areas in which the most ruthless methods had been applied. Indeed, when German Field Commanders on the Eastern Front attempted to resist Sauckel's demands, because forced recruitment was swelling the ranks of the partisans and making the army's task more difficult, Sauckel sent a telegram to Hitler, dated 10 March 1943, in which he implored him to intervene:

"Therefore, my Fuehrer, I ask you to abolish all orders which oppose the obligation of foreign workers for labor * * *."

"If the obligation for labor and the forced recruiting of workers in the East is not possible any more, then the German war industry and agriculture cannot fulfill their tasks to the full extent." (407-II-PS)

In addition to being responsible for the recruitment of foreign civilian labor by force, Sauckel was responsible for the conditions under which foreign workers were deported to Germany and for the treatment to which they were subjected within Germany. The conditions under which Sauckel's slaves were transported to Germany, were known to Sauckel (2241-PS). Moreover, he accepted responsibility for these conditions. Regulation Number 4 of 7 May 1942, issued by Sauckel as Plenipotentiary General for the Mobilization of Labor, deals with recruitment, care, lodging, feeding, and treatment of foreign workers of both sexes (3044-PS). By this decree, Sauckel expressly directed that the assembly and operation of rail transports and the supplying of food therefore was the responsibility of his agents until the transports arrived in Germany. By the same regulation, Sauckel directed that within Germany the care of foreign industrial workers was to be carried out by the German Labor Front and that care of foreign agricultural workers was to be carried out by the Reich Food Administration. By the terms of the regulation, Sauckel reserved for himself ultimate responsibility for all aspects of care, treatment, lodging, and feeding of foreign workers while in transit to and within Germany. The regulation reads (3044-PS):

"The care of foreign labor will be carried out.

"a. up to the Reichs border

"by my commissioners or-in the occupied areas by the competent military or civil labor mobilization agencies. Care of the labor will be carried out in cooperation with the respective competent foreign organization.

"b. Within the area of the Reich

"1. By the German Labor Front in the cases of non-agricultural workers.

"2. By the Reich Food administration in the case of agricultural workers.

"The German Labor Front and the German Food Administration are bound by my directives in the carrying out of their tasks of caring for the workers.

"The agencies of the labor mobilization administration are to give far-reaching support to the German Labor Front and the German Food Administration in the Fulfillment of their assigned tasks.

"My competence for the execution of the care of foreign labor is not prejudiced by the assignment of these tasks to the German Labor Front and the Reichs Food Administration."

"b. Composition and operation of the transports.

"The composition and operations of the transports up to the place of work is the task of my representatives, in the occupied territories of the labor mobilization agencies of the military and civil administration. In the countries in which foreign representatives are to direct the transports up to the frontier, the German Recruiting agency must take part in the supervision and care of the transports."

"c. Supply for the Transports.

"The food supply for the industrial workers in transit within the Reich, is the duty of the (DAF) German workers, front, office for labor mobilization.

For the rest, my offices effect the supply for the transport." (3044-PS)

Sauckel, in an agreement with Ley, the head of the German Labor Front (DAF) dated 2 June 1943, again emphasized his ultimate responsibility by creating a central inspectorate charged with examining the working and living conditions of foreign workers, and report in thereon to Sauckel's agency (1913-PS). The agreement reads in part as follows:

"* * * 2. The Reichsleiter of the German Labor Front, Reichsorganisationleiter Dr. Ley, in collaboration with the Plenipotentiary General for the Arbeitseinsatz, Gauleiter Sauckel, will establish a 'central inspection' for the continuous supervision of all measures concerning the care of the foreign workers mentioned under 1. This will have the designation:

'Central inspection for care of foreign workers.'

"The central inspection for the care of foreign workers exercises its functions upon directives and in the name of the Plenipotentiary General for the Arbeitseinsatz and of the Reichsleiter of the German Labor Front. In order to avoid all duplication of work, it will be its sole responsibility, ot scrutinize all measures taken for the care of foreign workers employed in the factories and camps, also to remove immediately all defects discovered-as far as possible-on the spot and to issue the necessary instructions for this.

"The authority of the Plenipotentiary General for the Arbeitseinsatz to empower the members of his staff and the presidents of the state employment offices to get direct information on the conditions regarding the employment of foreigners in the factories and camps, will remain untouched.

"3. The central inspection for the care of foreign workers will be continuously in touch with the main office VI of the Plenipotentiary General for the Arbeitseinsatz. It will instruct the office on the general observations made and will make suggestions for changes, if that should become necessary.

"4. The offices of the administration of the Arbeitseinsatz will be constantly informed by the 'central inspection for the care of foreign workers' of its observations, in particular immediately in each case in which action of State organizations seems to be necessary." (1913-PS)

Sauckel was also responsible for compelling citizens of the occupied countries against their will to manufacture implements of war for use in operations against their own country and its allies. These functions were included in the terms of Sauckel's appointment. (1666-PS)

In a series of reports of Hitler, Sauckel described how successful he had been in carrying out his program. One such report, dated 14 April 1943, states that in a single year Sauckel had incorporated 1,622,829 prisoners of war into the German economy:

"My Fuehrer,

"1. After having been active as Plenipotentiary for Arbeitseinsatz for one year I have the honor to report to you that 3,638,056 new foreign workers have been added to the German war economy between April 1st. of the last year and March 31st of this year."

"Besides the foreign civilian workers another 1,662,829 prisoners of war are employed in the German economy." (407-V-PS).

A subsequent report dated 3 June 1943, states that 846,511 additional foreign laborers and prisoners of war were incorporated into the German war industry:

"My Fuehrer:

"1. I beg to be permitted to report to you on the situation of the Arbeitseinsatz for the first five months of 1943. For the first time the following number of new foreign laborers and prisoners of war were employed in the German war industry: * * * Total: 846,511". (407-IX-PS)

9. THE SPECIAL RESPONSIBILITY OF INDIVIDUAL CONSPIRATIORS

In addition, the following conspirators who were informed by Sauckel of the quotas of foreign laborers which he required, collaborated with Sauckel and his agents in filling these quotas:

A. Keitel, Chief of the OKW.

The record of a telephone conversation of the Chief of the Economic Staff East of the German Army, date 11 March 1943, reads in part as follows (3012-PS).

"The plenipotentiary for the Arbeitseinsatz, Gauleiter Sauckel, points out to me in an urgent teletype, that the Arbeitseinsatz in German agriculture as well as all the most urgent armament programs, ordered by the Fuehrer, make the most rapid procurement of approx. 1 million women and men from the newly occupied territories an imperative necessity. Fir this purpose, Gauleiter Sauckel demands the shipment of 5,000 workers daily beginning 15 March, 10,000 workers male and female beginning 1 April from the newly occupied territories.

"The daily quota of 5,000 (10,000) workers was distributed with the consent of the GBA as follows:

Reich Commissioner Ukraine daily 3,000 (6,000) workers.

Wl Jn South daily 1,000 (2,000) workers.

Wl Jn Center daily 500 (1,000) workers.

Commissioner General White Ruthenia daily 500 (1,000) workers.

"In consideration of the extraordinary losses of workers, which occurred in German war industry because of the developments of the past months, it is now necessary, that the recruiting of workers be taken up again everywhere with all emphasis. The tendency momentarily noticeable in that territory, to limit and/or entirely stop the Reich recruiting program is absolutely not bearable in view of this state of affairs. Gauleiter Sauckel, who is informed about these events, has because of this, turned immediately to General Fieldmarshal Keitel on 10 March 1943, in a teletype, and has emphasized on this occasion, that, as in all other occupied territories, there, where all other methods fail, by order of the Fuehrer a certain pressure must be used." (3012-PS)

Confirmation of Keitel's collaboration with Sauckel is also found in the transcript of an interrogation under oath of Sauckel held on the morning of 5 October 1945:

"Q. Was it necessary in order to accomplish the completion of the quotas given to have liaison with the OKW?

"A. I remember that the Fuehrer had given directives to Marshal Keitel, telling him that my task was a very important one, and I, too, have often conferred with Keitel after such discussions with the Fuehrer, when I asked him for his support.

"Q. It was his task to supervise the proper performance of the military commanders in the occupied countries in carrying out their missions, was it not?

"A. Yes, The Fuehrer had told me that he would inform the Chief of the OKW, and the Chief of the Reichs chancellery, as to these missions. The same applies to the Foreign Minister." (3722-PS)

The following colloquy is taken from the transcript of an interrogation under oath of Alfred Rosenberg on the afternoon of 6 October 1945:

"Q. Isn't it a fact, that Sauckel would allocate to the various areas under your jurisdiction the number of persons to be obtained for labor purposes?

"A. Yes.

"Q. And that thereafter, your agents would obtain that labor, in order to meet the quota which had been given; isn't that right?

"A. Sauckel, normally, had very far-reaching desires, which one couldn't fulfill unless one looked very closely into the matter.

"Q. Never mind about Sauckel's desires being far-reaching or not being far-reaching. That has nothing to do with it. You were given quotas for the areas over which you had jurisdiction, and it was up to you to meet that quota?

"A. Yes; it was the responsibility of the administrative officials to receive this quota and to distribute the allotments over the districts in such a way, according to number and according to the age groups, so they would be most reasonably met.

"Q. These administrative officials were part of your organization, isn't that right?

"A. They were functionaries or officials of the Reichskommissar for the Ukraine, but, as such, they were placed in their office by the Ministry for the Eastern Occupied Territories." (3719-PS)

Corroboration is to be found in letters written by Sauckel to Rosenberg requesting the latter's assistance in the recruitment of additional foreign laborers. (017-PS; 019-PS)

C. Seyss-Inquart, reichscommissar for the Occupied Netherlands.

The transcript of an interrogation under oath of Sauckel on the morning of 5 October 1945, reads in part, as follows:

"Q. For a moment, I want to turn our attention to Holland. It is my understanding that the quotas for the workers from Holland were agreed upon, and then the numbers given to the Reichskommissar Seyss-Inquart to fulfill, is that correct?

"A. Yes, that is correct.

"Q. After the quota was given to Seyss-Inquart, it was his mission to fulfill it with the aid of your representatives; was it not?

"A. Yes. This was the only possible thing for me to do and the same applied to other countries." (3722-PS)

D. Frank, Governor General of the Government-General of Poland.

The transcript of interrogation under oath of Sauckel on the morning of 5 October 1945 reveals the part played by Frank:

"Q. Was the same procedure substantially followed of allocating quotas in the General Government Poland?

"A. Yes. I have to basically state again that the only possibility I had in carrying through these missions was to get in touch with the highest German military authority in the respective country and to transfer to them the orders of the Fuehrer and ask them very urgently, as I have always done, to fulfill these orders.

"Q. Such discussions in Poland, of course, were with the General Governor Frank?

"A. Yes. I spent a morning and afternoon in Krakov twice or three times, and I personally spoke to general Governor Frank. Naturally, there was also present Secretary Dr. Goebbels." (3722-PS)

E. The SS, as in all matters involving the use of force and brutality, extended its assistance.

This is clearly indicated in Reichschancellor Lammers' report of a conference with Hitler attended by, among others, Sauckel, Speer, and Himmler (the Reichsfuehrer SS). The conference proceeded as follows:

"The Plenipotentiary for Employment of Labor, Sauckel, declared that he will attempt with fanatical determination to obtain these workers. Until now, he has always kept his promises as to the number of workers to be furnished. With the best of intentions, however, he is unable to make a definite promise for 1944. He will do everything in his powers to furnish the requested manpower in 1944. Whether it will succeed depends primarily on what German enforcement agents will be made available. His project cannot be carried out with domestic enforcement agents. The Reichsfuehrer SS explained that the enforcement agents put at his disposal are extremely few, but that he would try helping the Sauckel project to succeed by increasing them and working them harder." (1292-PS)

10. THE SPECIAL RESPONSIBILITY OF SPEER

The use of prisoners of war in the manufacture of arms and munitions, allocated thereto by Sauckel, was confirmed by Speer. Speer stated in an interrogation under oath on 18 October 1945 that 40% of all prisoners of war were employed in the production of weapons and munitions and in subsidiary industries:

"* * * A. In the last phase of production, that is, in the year 1944 when everything collapsed, I had 40% of all prisoners of war employed in the production. I wanted to have this percentage increased.

"Q. And when you say employed in the production, you mean in these subsidiary industries that you have discussed and also in the production of weapons and munitions, is that right?

"A. Yes. That is the total extent of my task." (3720-PS)

The minutes of the 36th Meeting of the Central Planning Board, of 22 April 1943, report Speer's statement that:

"* * * 90,000 Russian prisoners of war employed in the whole of the armament industry are for the greatest part skilled men." (R-124)

Speer actively 'participated in the planning and execution of the vast program of forcible deportation and enslavement of the citizens of the occupied countries. As Reich Minister of Armaments and Munitions and Chief of the Organization Todt, both of which positions he acquired on 15 February 1942, and by virtue of his later acquisition of control over the armament offices of the Army, Navy and Air Force and the production offices of the Ministry of Economics, Speer was responsible for the entire war production of the Reich, as well as for the construction of fortifications and installations for the Wehrmacht. Proof of the positions held by Speer is supplied by his signed statement. (2980-PS)

The industries under Speer's control were the most important users of manpower in Germany. According to Sauckel, Speer's labor requirements received unconditional priority over all other demands for labor. In an interrogation under oath on 22nd September 1945, Sauckel stated:

"The others I only got whatever was left. Because Speer told me once in the presence of the Fuehrer that I am here to work for Speer and that mainly I am his man." (3721-PS)

Speer has admitted under oath that he participated in the discussions during which the decision to use foreign forced labor was made, that he concurred in the decision, and that it was the basis for the program of bringing foreign workers into Germany by compulsion. The transcript of the interrogation under oath of Speer, on 18 October 1945, contains the following colloquy:

"Q. But is it clear to you Mr. Speer, that in 1942 when the decisions were being taken concerning the use of forced foreign labor that you participated in the discussions yourself?

"A. Yes.

"Q. So that I take it that the execution of the program of bringing foreign workers into Germany by compulsion under Sauckel was based on earlier decisions that had been taken with your agreement?

"A. Yes, but I must point out that only a very small part of the manpower that Sauckel brought into Germany was made available to me; a far larger part of it was allocated to other departments that demanded them." (3720-PS)

This admission is confirmed by minutes of Speer's conferences with Hitler on 10, 11, and 12 August (R-124). In these meeting s Speer related the outcome of negotiations concerning the forcible recruitment of a million Russian laborers for the German armaments industry, and stated that Hitler would agree to any necessary compulsion.

The use of force was again discussed by Hitler and Speer on 4 January 1943. It was decided that stronger measures were to be used to accelerate the conscription of French civilian workers. (556-13-PS).

Speer demanded foreign workers for the industries under his control and used these workers with the knowledge that they had been deported by force and were being compelled to work. Speer has stated under oath, in an interrogation on 18 October 1945 that:

"I do not wish to give the impression that I want to deny the fact that I demanded manpower and foreign manpower from Sauckel very energetically." (3720-PS)

Speer also admitted, in the course of the same interrogation, that he knew he was obtaining foreign labor, a large part of which was forced labor:

"Q. So that during the period when you were asking for labor, it seems clear, does it not, that you knew that you were obtaining foreign labor as well as domestic labor in response to your requests and that a large part of the foreign labor was forced labor.

"A. Yes.

"Q. So that, simply by way of illustration, suppose that on January 1, 1944 you required 50,000 workers for a given purpose, would you put in a requisition for 50,000 workers, knowing that in that 50,000 there would be forced foreign workers?

"A. Yes." (3720-PS)

Speer has furthermore stated under oath that he knew at least as early as September 1942 that workers from the Ukraine were being forcibly deported for labor in Germany. He also knew that the great majority of the workers of the Western occupied countries were slave laborers forced against their will to come to Germany. These facts are revealed in his interrogation under oath on 18 October 1945:

"Q. When did you first find out then that some of the manpower from the Ukraine was not coming voluntarily?

"A. It is rather difficult to answer this here, that is, to name a certain date to you. However, it is certain that I knew that at some particular point of time that the manpower from the Ukraine did not come voluntarily.

"Q. And does that apply also to the manpower from other occupied countries, that is, did there come a time when you knew that they were not coming voluntarily?

"A. Yes.

"Q. When, in general, would you say that time was, without placing a particular month of the year?

"A. As far as the Ukraine situation goes, I believe that they did not come voluntarily any more after a few months, because immense mistakes were made in their treatment by us. I should say offhand that this time was either in July, August or September of 1942.

"Q. But many workers did come from the West, did they not, to Germany?

"A. Yes.

"Q. That means then that the great majority of the workers that came from the Western countries, the Western occupied countries, came against their will to Germany.

"A. Yes." (3720-PS)

This admission is borne out by other evidence. In April 1943 Speer was informed at a meeting of the Central Planning Board, that in all countries conscription for work in Germany could be carried out only with the active assistance of the police, and that the prevailing methods of recruitment had provoked such violence that many German recruiting agents had been killed. (R-124). Again, at a meeting with Hitler to discuss overall manpower requirements for 1944, Speer was informed by Sauckel that labor requirements for the German war economy (including Speer's requirements of 1,300,000 additional laborers) could be met only if German enforcement agents were furnished to carry out the enslavement program in the occupied countries. (1292-PS)

Notwithstanding his knowledge that foreign workers were being conscripted and deported for use as slave laborers in Germany, Speer formulated requirements for the foreign workers and requested their allocation to industries subject to his control.

At another meeting of the Central Planning Board, Speer stated:

"Speer: Now, the labor problem in Germany. I believe it is still possible to transfer some from the western territories. The Fuehrer stated only recently he wishes to dissolve these foreign volunteers as he had the impression that the army groups were carting around with them a lot of ballast. Therefore, if we cannot settle this matter ourselves, we shall have to call a meeting with the Fuehrer to clear up the coal situation. Keitel and Zeitzler will be invited to attend in order to determine the number of Russians from the rear army territories who can be sent to us. However, I see another possibility; we might organize another drive to screen out workers for the mines from the Russian Ps/W in the Reich. But this possibility is none too promising." (R-124)

At another meeting of the Central Planning Board, Speer rejected a suggestion that labor for industries under his control be furnished from German sources instead of from foreign countries, for these reason:

"Speer: We do it that way: Kehrl collects the demands for labor necessary to complete the coal-and-iron-plan and communicates the numbers to Sauckel. Probably there will be a conference at the Reich Marshal's in the next week, ad an answer from Sauckel should have arrived by then. The question of recruitment for the armaments industry will be solved together with Weger.

"Kehrl: I wish to urge that the allotments to the mines should not be made dependent on the recruitment of men abroad. We were completely frustrated these last three months because this principle had been applied. We ended December with a deficit of 25,000 and we never get replacements. The number must be made up by men from Germany.

"Speer: No, nothing doing!" (R-124)

Speer also advocated terror and brutality as a means of maximizing production by slave laborers who worked in the industries under his control. In the course of a discussion concerning the supply and exploitation of labor, Speer stated:

"Speer: We must also discuss the slackers. Ley has ascertained that the sick list decreased to one fourth or one fifth in factories where doctors are on the staff who are examining the sick men. There is nothing to be said against SS and Police taking drastic steps and putting those known as slackers into concentration camps. There is no alternative. Let it happen several times and the news will soon go round." (R-124)

Speer is also guilty of compelling Allied nationals and prisoners of war to engage not only in the production of armaments and munitions, but also in direct military operations, against their own country and its actively resisting allies. Speer, as Chief of the Organization Todt, is accountable for its policies which were in direct conflict with the laws of war. The Organization Todt, in violation of the laws of war, impressed allied nationals into its service. Proof of its activity is furnished by an International Labor Office Study of Exploitation of Foreign Labor by Germany:

"The methods used for the recruitment of foreign workers who were destined for employment in the Organization did not greatly differ from the methods used for the recruitment of foreigners for deportation to Germany. The main difference was that, since the principal activities of the Organization lay outside the frontiers of Germany, foreigners were not transported to Germany, but had either to work in their own country or in some other occupied territory.

"In the recruitment drives for foreign workers for the Organization methods of compulsion as well as methods of persuasion were used, the latter usually with very little result * * *." (L-191)

Similar violations of the laws of warfare are disclosed in (407-VIII-PS).

As Chief of German war production, Speer sponsored and approved the use of prisoners of war in the production of armaments and munitions which were used against their own country and its actively resisting allies. This fact has been demonstrated by the evidence already discussed. To recapitulate:

1. After Speer assumed responsibility for armament production, his primary concern in his discussions with his co-conspirators was to secure a larger allocation of prisoners of war for his armament factories. In a meeting of the Central Planning Board on 22 April 1943, Speer complained that only 30% of the Russian prisoners of war were engaged in the armament industry. (R-124)

2. In an earlier speech, Speer stated that 10,000 prisoners of war were put at the disposal of the armaments industry upon his orders. (1435-PS)

3. Finally, Speer advocated returning escaped prisoners of war to factories as convicts. He said, at a meeting of the Central Planning Board:

"We have to come to an engagement with the Reichsfuehrer SS as soon as possible so that prisoners of war he picks up are made available for our purposes. The Reichsfuehrer SS gets from 30 to 40,000 men per month. First of all they have to be divided up. From what classes do these people come, anyhow? There certainly is a certain percentage of miners among these people who are picked up. These few thousand men have to go to the mines automatically. Certainly, some educational work has to be done. The men should be put into the factories as convicts. But they have to return to the factories where they were before * * *." (R-124)

Speer is also guilty of having approved and sponsored the program for using concentration camp labor in Nazi armament factories, which was part of the larger program of extermination through work. The proof of this activity may be summarized and supplemented as follows:

1. Speer proposed measures for the exploitation of the concentration camp labor in armament factories under his jurisdiction. At a meeting with Hitler Speer proposed and Hitler agreed that armament production should not be established within concentration camps but that concentration camp labor should be made available to established armament factories. (R-124)

2. Speer, by arranging for the use of concentration camp laborers in factories under his control, created an increasing demand for such labor. This demand was filled in part by placing in concentration camps persons who would not ordinarily have been sent there. (1063-D-PS)

3. Speer participated in the exploitation of the victims of the Nazi program of extermination through work. He personally selected sites for subsidiary concentration camps which were established near factories in Upper Austria, and knew and approved of the general practice of locating concentration camps near industrial plants which they supplied with labor (Speer's interrogation under oath on 18 October 1945. (3720-PS)

Speer visited the concentration camp Mauthausen and factories such as those of Krupp, where concentration camp labor was exploited under barbarous conditions. Despite personal and first-hand knowledge of these conditions, Speer continued to direct the use of concentration camp labor in factories under his jurisdiction. In Speer's interrogation under oath on 18 October 1945, he stated:

"Q. But, in general, the use of concentration camp labor was known to you and approved by you as a source of labor?

"A. Yes.

"Q. And you knew also, I take it, that among the inmates of the concentration camps there were both Germans and foreigners?

"A. I didn't think about it at that time.

"Q. As a matter of fact you visited the Austrian concentration camp personally, did you not?"

"A. I didn't-well I was in Mauthausen once but at that time I was not told just to what categories the inmates of the concentration camps belonged.

"Q. But in general everybody knew, did they not, that foreigners who were taken away by the Gestapo, or arrested by the Gestapo, as well as Germans, found their way into the concentration camps?

"A. Of course, yes. I didn't mean to imply anything like that."

"Q. Did you ever discuss, by the way, the requirements of Krupp for foreign labor?

"A. It is certain that it was reported to me what Krupp had in foreign workers.

"Q. Did you ever discuss it with any of the members of the Krupp first?

"A. I cannot say that exactly, but during the time of my activities I visited the Krupp factory more than once and it is certain that this was discussed, that is, the lack of manpower." (3720-PS)

LEGAL REFERENCES AND LIST OF DOCUMENTS RELATING TO THE SLAVE LABOR PROGRAM, THE ILLEGAL USE OF PRISONERS OF WAR, AND THE SPECIAL RESPONSIBILITY OF SAUCKEL AND SPEER THEREFOR

Document Description Vol. Page

Charter of the International Military Tribunal, Article 6 (b. c.).....I 5

Note: A single asterisk (*) before a document indicates that the document was received in evidence at the Nurnburg trial. A double asterisk (**) before a document number indicates that the document was referred to during the trial but was not formally received in evidence, for the reason given in parentheses following the description of the document. The USA series number, given in parentheses following the description of the document, is the official exhibit number assigned by the court.

*019-PS Letter from Sauckel to Rosenberg, 17 March 1943, concerning draft of workers from the East. (USA 181)....III 65

*031-PS Memorandum, 12 June 1944, concerning evacuation of youths from the territory of Army Group "Center", and interoffice memorandum, Ministry for Occupied Eastern Territories, 14 June 1944. (USA 171)......III 71

*3000-PS Report, from Chief of Main Office III with the High Command in Minsk to Reicke, 28 June 1943, on experiences in political and economic problems in the East, particularly White Ruthenia. (USA 192).....V 726

*3003-PS Report of Lt. Haupt concerning the situation of war economy in Netherlands. (USA 196)......V 726